5. In respect to submission to the jurisdiction and decisions of the courts of justice and all other authorities of the Republic. 6. In respect to the obligation of contributing to the public expenses of the State, province, and municipality. TITLE IV RIGHTS GUARANTEED BY THIS CONSTITUTION SECTION FIRST INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS ART. 11. All Cubans are equal before the law. The Republic does not recognize any personal prerogatives. ART. 12. No law shall have retroactive effect, except when penal and favorable to the defendant. ART. 13. Obligations of a civil nature arising out of contracts or other acts or omissions shall not be nullified by either the legislative or the executive power. ART. 14. The penalty of death shall in no case be imposed for offenses of political character, said offenses to be defined by law. ART. 15. No person shall be detained except in the cases and in the manner prescribed by law. ART. 16. Every arrested person shall be set at liberty or placed at the disposal of the competent judge or court within twenty-four hours immediately following the arrest. ART. 17. All arrests shall be terminated, or turned into formal imprisonments, within seventy-two hours, immediately after the delivery of the arrested person to the judge or court of competent jurisdiction. Within the same time notice shall be served upon the interested party of the action taken. ART. 18. No person shall be imprisoned except by order of a competent judge or court. The order directing the imprisonment shall be affirmed or reversed, upon the proper hearing of the prisoner, within seventy-two hours next following the committal. ART. 19. No person shall be prosecuted or sentenced except by a competent judge or court, by virtue of laws in force, prior to the commission of the offense, and in the manner and form prescribed by said laws. ART. 20. Every person arrested or imprisoned without the formalities of law, or outside of the cases foreseen in this constitution or the laws, shall be set at liberty at his own request or that of any citizen. The law shall determine the form of summary proceedings to be followed in this case. ART. 21. No one shall be bound to testify against himself, neither shall he be compelled to testify against his consort, nor against his relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of affinity. ART. 22. The secrecy of correspondence and other private documents is inviolable, and neither shall be seized or examined except by order of a competent authority and with the formalities prescribed by the laws. In all cases matters therein contained not relating to the subject under investigation shall be kept secret. ART. 23. Domicile is inviolable; and therefore no one shall enter at night the house of another except by permission of its occupant, unless it be for the purpose of giving aid and assistance to victims of crime or accident; or in the daytime, except in the cases and in the manner prescribed by law.