Law of Argentina

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The Legal system of Argentina is a Civil law legal system. The two pillars of the Civil system are the Constitution of Argentina (1853) and the Civil Code of Argentina (1871).

The Argentine Constitution of 1853 was an attempt to unite the unstable and young country of the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata under a single law, creating as well the different organisms needed to run a country. The constitution was finally approved after failed signatory attempts in 1813 (see Assembly of 1813), 1819 and 1831 (Pacto Federal).

The Civil Code was written by Argentine jurist Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield, and started being effective on January 1, 1871. Beyond the influence of the Spanish legal tradition, the Argentine Civil Code was also inspired by the Draft of the Brazilian Civil Code, the Draft of the Spanish Civil Code of 1851, the Napoleonic code and the Chilean Civil Code among others. The sources of this Civil Code also include various theoretical legal works, mainly of the great French jurists of the 19th century. It was the first Civil Law that consciously adopted as its cornerstone the distinction between rights from obligations and real property rights, thus distancing itself from the French model.

Judicial system[edit]



A 1991 law provides a fund for compensating prisoners who were illegally detained during the 1976–83 military dictatorship. In 1992, a system of oral public trials was instituted in order to speed up the judicial process while improving the protection of procedural rights of criminal defendants.

In practice, there is not a truly independent judiciary and the courts lack power to enforce orders against the executive. In 1989, President Carlos Menem, in a court-packing maneuver, expanded the number of Supreme Court justices from five to nine. In 2003, shortly after taking office, President Néstor Kirchner signaled his intention to remove some of Menem’s appointees and to strengthen the judiciary by undoing some of Menem’s moves that turned the Supreme Court into a political ally of the president rather than an autonomous power of the state. Formal and informal constitutional accusation against Menem-appointed Supreme Court justices between 2003 and 2005 allowed Kirchner to appoint new justices who are considered the among the best in the Argentine legal community.[citation needed] While doing so he issued a degree limiting the powers of the president of the republic to appoint judges to the Supreme Court.


Structure of the Law in Argentina[edit]

Jacarandá in bloom in Plaza Lavalle, the heart of Buenos Aires' legal district.
Constitution of Argentina
  1. Bill of Rights
  2. Form of Government
  3. Delegation of Powers to the National
  4. Precedence of Laws - International Treaties
  5. Provincial Constitutions
Civil Code of Argentina
Preliminary titles
  1. On the laws
  2. On counting intervals of the right
Books of Law
  1. Of the persons
  2. Of the personal rights in the civil relations
  3. Of the possessions and real rights
  4. Of the personal and real rights
Complementary Title
  1. Of the application of the civil laws
Argentine sources of law
  1. Statutory Law
  2. Case Law
  3. Custom
  4. General Principles of Law
  5. Analogy
  6. Equity
Argentine interpretation of legislation
  1. Methods of Interpretation
  2. Sources of Interpretation
  3. Special Rules of Interpretation
Argentine law jurisdictions
  1. Jurisdiction
  2. Competence
  3. Levels of Jurisdiction
  4. Jurisdiction of the Argentine Courts in the International Sphere

See also[edit]

External links[edit]