(Extracts)

(Adopted on 16-29 of April, 1879; amended on 15-28 of May, 1893, and on 11-24 of July, 1911)

Chapter XII. The Citizens of the Bulgarian Kingdom

Article 54. All persons born in Bulgaria and who have not adopted any other nationality, as well as those who are born in foreign countries of parents who are Bulgarian subjects, are considered subjects of the Bulgarian Kingdom.

Art. 55. Amended on 11-24 of July, 1911. Foreigners may be admitted to Bulgarian nationality only by the confirmation of the National Assembly. Foreigners may be admitted to Bulgarian nationality by virtue of a law, to be enacted hereafter.

Art. 56. Every subject of the Kingdom may change his nationality after he has completed his period of military service and has fulfilled his other obligations toward the State, in conformity with a special law, to be enacted hereafter.

Art. 57. All Bulgarian subjects are equal before the law. No division into classes (saslovia) shall be permitted in Bulgaria.

Art. 58. Titles of nobility and other distinctions shall not exist in the Bulgarian Kingdom.

Art. 60. The citizens of the Bulgarian Kingdom alone enjoy political rights; but all persons who dwell within the Kingdom enjoy civil rights in conformity with the laws.

Art. 61. No one has the right to buy or sell human beings within Bulgaria. Any slave of whatever sex, religion, or race, is free as soon as he (or she) sets foot on Bulgarian territory.

Art. 62. The laws concerning public order and the police laws are equally binding upon all who live within the Kingdom.

Art. 63. All immovable (real) property situated in the Kingdom, even though it belongs to foreigners, is governed by the Bulgarian laws.

Art. 64. In all other respects, the status of foreigners is determined by special laws.

Art. 65. Bulgarian subjects alone have the right to fill public offices, civil or military.

Art. 66. Foreigners may also be admitted to fill public offices, provided the approval of the National Assembly be obtained in every instance.

The law which shall determine the method of acquisition of Bulgarian nationality must provide facilities to those Bulgarians from Thrace and Macedonia who shall express their intention of becoming Bulgarian subjects. All persons of Bulgarian extraction or foreigners who, during the recent (Russo-Turkish) war, assisted the task of liberating Bulgaria, either as civil or military officials, are by right considered citizens of the Bulgarian Principality (Kingdom), provided that they apply therefor to the proper governmental department during a period of three years after the Constitution goes into effect.

April 14-27, 1879.

Foreigners who have rendered some meritorious service to the country shall be considered honorary citizens of the Bulgarian Principality (Kingdom). The Prince (King) shall, with the consent of the National Assembly, decide upon whom this honor shall be conferred and shall send them the necessary certificates.

* Thanks are due to Professor Philip C. Jessup of Columbia University, who has read this translation and suggested some corrections in it.