Abstract
In the article, the various government orders of the Argentine federation and the bases of municipal autonomy in the National Constitution are first developed. Subsequently, the bases of the municipal regime are considered in the Provincial Constitutions and after, the different types of existing local governments. The Municipal Organic Charters are also analyzed, as an expression of local autonomy. And finally, the violations of said autonomies are described, with special reference to the financial and tax aspects, within the framework of the centralization that the country suffers.
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Notes
- 1.
See Hernández (2019a).
- 2.
- 3.
In which I served as Vice-President of the Drafting Committee.
- 4.
According to Art. 124 of the National Constitution, each Region is created and integrated into the respective Province. Only the Province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires do not constitute a Region, which might be very important for solving the problems of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, with more than 13,000,000 of inhabitants. See Hernández (2019b).
- 5.
The population is approximately 44 million people and Argentina is the eighth largest countries of the world.
- 6.
As there is no room to analyse this important point concerning the historical evolution of this debate, please refer to the books quoted supra, note 3.
- 7.
Art. 75 Section 2 establishes that laws and tax sharing agreements must be agreed between the President and the Governors, with subsequent approval by the Congress and the Legislatures. This must be the most important expression of concerted federalism and the basis of federal finances. Unfortunately, 25 years after the 1994 constitutional reform, it has not been possible to fulfill this mandate. See Hernández (2020), pp. 125 ff.
- 8.
CSJN, ‘Intendente Municipal Capital c. Provincia de La Rioja s. Amparo’, 11 November 2014, where I represented the Municipality plaintiff before the Supreme Court of Justice, See Cuaderno de Federalismo, 2014 Annual Federalism Report, Institute of Federalism of the National Academy of Law and Social Sciences of Córdoba, Córdoba, 2015, on www.acaderc.org.ar. This ruling, together with those mentioned above, are the most important of the jurisprudence of our Highest Federal Court around the municipal autonomy.
- 9.
See Hernández and Krivocapich (2021a). In the case of the Municipality of La Banda, I was also the lawyer who represented the plaintiff and in this last case, we presented an Amicus Curiae before the Supreme Court of Justice on behalf of more than 40 Municipalities of the Province of Buenos Aires.
- 10.
- 11.
There are approximately 2300 local governments in the 23 Provinces. In general, only cities or municipalities of the first category can issue their own Municipal Organic Charts, according to the Provincial Constitutions. See Hernández (2003), p. 140.
- 12.
The first degree is the federal level, the second degree is the provincial level, and the third degree is the municipal level.
- 13.
For a further analysis of these issues, see Hernández (2003).
- 14.
Considered the father of the historic National Constitution of 1853.
- 15.
The author had the honor to chair the Municipal Constitutional Convention of the City of Córdoba, which in 1995 enacted the first Municipal Charter for a city of more than one million inhabitants in Latin America. The charter was the result of a very high degree of consensus by the five blocks of political parties in the Convention delegates. This Charter has served as a model for many others in Argentina.
- 16.
The Province of Buenos Aires is the most centralized one and has the most backward municipal system of all. There is no political decentralization, since for approximately 17,000,000 inhabitants in 307,000 km2 there are only 135 municipal governments based in a city, while the other localities have delegates appointed by the Mayor. In some cases, that delegate is more than 100 km2 from the capital city. There is a movement promoting the autonomy of these localities, which recently met in Huanguelén. See the interview in the newspaper La Nueva of Bahia Blanca, June 2, 2018, where I pointed out the need for an immediate constitutional reform in the Province to guarantee municipal autonomy and decentralize provincial power. In addition, see Hernández (2003), the chapter on Régimen Municipal Argentino.
- 17.
See Hernández (2005). The subject is regulated in Municipal Organic Law No. 8102 of the Province of Córdoba, enacted in 1991 on the basis of my draft bill in the Provincial Legislature. I was also a member of the Drafting Committee in the Provincial Constituent Assembly of the Province of Córdoba, which in 1987 enshrined the principle of municipal autonomy in Arts. 180, 183 and concordants of the Provincial Constititution.
- 18.
There are 47 cities with a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants that are required to adopt an Organic Charter, but only 27 cities have done so.
- 19.
See Hernández (2019b), p. 20 ‘Proposals for the strengthening of Federalism’.
- 20.
The author represented the plaintiff (the Municipality) in this other case of historical importance regarding local autonomy. Besides this, it cannot be ignored that there is a need for greater consistency in the standards of control of constitutionality of the Courts and the Court in relation to local autonomy, particularly in relation to the advances observed in the powers of taxation and municipal police power, despite the provisions of Art. 75, section 30 of the Supreme Law. In this regard, see the decision in the case Cet v. Municipalidad de Río Cuarto- Acción. Declarativa de inconstitucionalidad, in 2014, where the Superior Court of Justice of the Province of Córdoba upheld the action brought by the provincial gaming concessionaire against an Ordinance of the Deliberating Council that had tried to limit the 24-hour operation of the Casino, in exercise of the health police power, and in view of the problems caused by gambling addiction. Notwithstanding the extraordinary appeals and complaints filed, in addition to the request for a public hearing, the Supreme Court finally dismissed the matter in 2017, although the opposing vote of Justice Rosatti should be noted.
- 21.
See Hernández and Krivocapich (2021b).
- 22.
Llach and Grotz (2013).
- 23.
Whose detail can be seen in Hernández (2009), chapter III.
- 24.
What was invalidated by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, in the ruling of 24 November 2015 that gave rise to the claims presented by the Provinces of San Luis, Santa Fe and Córdoba, for the detractions made to the coparticipable mass, without the participation and agreement of the Provinces.
- 25.
OECD Statistical Database, www.oecd.org.
- 26.
See the argumentation of José Raúl Heredia in his cited work, in the point ‘Autonomy versus tax centralization’, 181 ff (Heredia 2005).
- 27.
Proposal No. 1, in Hernández (2019b).
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Hernández, A.M. (2023). The Municipal Regime in Argentina. In: Nicolini, M., Valdesalici, A. (eds) Local Governance in Multi-Layered Systems. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 108. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41792-4_8
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