The Argentine legal system
A municipal ordinance cannot contradict a national law, and an IRAM standard binds no one until a legal norm makes it mandatory. Knowing what prevails over what avoids many mistakes.
01The pyramid of norms
Legal rules are not all at the same level. They form a tiered order, which the jurist Hans Kelsen described as a pyramid: each rule derives its validity from a higher one and cannot contradict it. When two rules collide, the higher-ranking one prevails. In the Argentine national order, from top to bottom:
| Level | Rules | Who issues them |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The National Constitution and human rights treaties with constitutional rank | Constituent convention; Congress for the treaties |
| 2 | Other international treaties | Executive branch, with Congress’s approval |
| 3 | National laws; emergency decrees (decretos de necesidad y urgencia) and delegated decrees, which have the rank of law | Congress; the Executive branch in exceptional cases |
| 4 | Implementing decrees (decretos reglamentarios) | Executive branch |
| 5 | Resolutions of ministries, secretariats and agencies (ENACOM, ENRE, ANMAT) | The competent administrative authority |
Between two rules of the same rank, two principles apply: the later one repeals the earlier one, and the specific one prevails over the general one.
02Laws and decrees
A law is enacted by Congress. The Executive branch may issue decrees of three kinds that differ greatly from one another:
| Decree | Constitutional basis | What it can do |
|---|---|---|
| Implementing (reglamentario) | Article 99, clause 2 | Spell out how a law is applied, without altering its spirit. Example: Decree 351/79 implements Law 19,587 on occupational health and safety |
| Emergency decree (de necesidad y urgencia, DNU) | Article 99, clause 3 | Legislate in exceptional circumstances, never on criminal, tax, electoral or political party matters; Congress oversees it (Law 26,122) |
| Delegated (delegado) | Article 76 | Legislate on administrative matters or matters of public emergency that Congress delegated to it, with a time limit and guidelines set by law |
For an engineer, the practical consequence is that reading the law is almost never enough: the specific figures, deadlines and requirements are usually found in the implementing decree or in a resolution of the oversight agency.
03The Nation, provinces and municipalities
Besides the national order, each province has its own pyramid —provincial constitution, laws, decrees, resolutions— and municipalities issue ordinances. The relationship between these orders is not only a matter of rank: it depends on competence.
- In the matters that the provinces delegated to the Nation, the national rule prevails over any provincial rule (Article 31 of the Constitution).
- In the matters that the provinces retained —the practice of professions, the police power over building, the organization of their municipalities—, the local rule applies, and a national law cannot encroach on them.
- Municipalities have autonomy (Article 123), within the regime set by each provincial constitution.
You choose two rules and the tool explains which one prevails if they contradict each other, and why. It is useful for organizing your thinking: in a real case, besides rank you also have to look at competence, the date and whether one is specific with respect to the other.
04When a rule comes into force
A rule is binding from its official publication. Under Article 5 of the Civil and Commercial Code, laws take effect after the eighth day following their publication, unless they themselves set another date. And under Article 7, they do not have retroactive effect unless otherwise provided, and even then they cannot affect rights protected by the Constitution.
For a long project this matters: an installation designed under the regulations in force when the project was approved may have to be adapted if, before it is commissioned, a new rule comes into force with a mandatory application date.
05Technical standards in the system
Technical standards —IRAM in Argentina, IEC and ISO internationally, the regulations of the Argentine Electrotechnical Association (AEA) for electrical installations— are not part of the pyramid: they are issued by a private or mixed body, by consensus. They enter the legal system when a legal rule makes them mandatory, for example when a resolution requires safety certification of a product according to a specific standard, or when a province or municipality requires electrical installations to comply with the AEA regulations.
Even when they are not mandatory, they are used as a benchmark of good practice. An expert report on an electrical fire will compare the installation against the regulations, whether or not they are mandatory in that place.
06Where it shows up in electronics
| Topic | The chain of rules |
|---|---|
| Electrical safety at work | Law 19,587 → Decree 351/79 → resolutions of the Superintendency of Occupational Risks (Superintendencia de Riesgos del Trabajo) |
| Use of the radio spectrum | Information and Communications Technology Services Law → ENACOM regulations |
| Safe electrical products | Resolutions of the Secretariat of Commerce requiring certification to IRAM or IEC standards |
| Signing off a building’s installation | Provincial professional-practice law → municipal building code → AEA regulations |
07Activities
Starting from Law 19,587, look up in InfoLEG its implementing decree and a later resolution that supplements it. Draw the chain with the rank of each one.
Find out which rule requires, in the city where you live, that an electrical installation be signed by a licensed professional, and what its rank is.
Find an electronic product that requires safety certification to be sold in Argentina and identify the resolution that requires it and the technical standard it cites.
08Common mistakes
- Reading only the law. The applicable details are usually in the implementing decree and in the resolutions.
- Believing that a national rule always wins. In the matters that the provinces retain, the local rule applies.
- Treating an IRAM standard as a law. It is binding only if a legal rule incorporates it.
- Forgetting the date of entry into force. A published rule may not yet be in force, or may apply to new projects and not to approved ones.
09Self-assessment
What rank does an emergency decree (DNU) have?
The rank of law, subject to oversight by Congress under Law 26,122.
Two national laws contradict each other. Which one applies?
The later one, unless the earlier one is specific to the case and the new one is general.
When does a law that sets no date come into force?
After the eighth day following its official publication (Article 5 of the Civil and Commercial Code).
Can an implementing decree change what the law says?
No: it must respect its spirit (Article 99, clause 2, of the Constitution).
10Further reading
- Germán J. Bidart Campos. Manual de la Constitución reformada. Ediar (in Spanish). Supremacy, decrees and the division of competences between the Nation and the provinces.
- Hans Kelsen. Pure Theory of Law. German original: “Reine Rechtslehre” (Spanish edition: “Teoría pura del derecho”, Eudeba). The origin of the idea of a tiered normative order.
- Juan Carlos Cassagne. Derecho administrativo. Abeledo Perrot (in Spanish). Regulations, resolutions and the police power of oversight agencies.