General Rules

A province must have, in accordance with its needs, and as part of its general statute, an administrative statute in which all matters pertaining to the administration of temporal goods are accurately determined. This statute must be included in the acts of the provincial chapter and should not be easily changed substantially save for a pressing reason.

In the spirit of n. 552, the Order must have its own administrative statute, approved by the Master of the Order with his council.

By ecclesiastical law, the Order, each province, and each convent has its own juridical personality. When this is not recognized by the State, each must acquire a civil personality as determined by the province’s statute or the Order’s.

1. The goods of societies or associations which assume before the State a civil legal personality on behalf of a convent, a province, or the Order are really our own goods and
   must be treated as such.
2. Therefore, the legal representative of the civil person which acts on behalf of a convent, a province, the Order, or an institution belonging to them may take only those actions which, according to our law, a competent superior or administrator may take; and he is strictly obliged to carry them out not as he decides, but as instructed by the competent official.
3. The same applies to other administrators and to each associate who by voting or in any other way takes part in administration. In all such cases, legal precautions must be taken
   lest any loss be sustained from the death of a brother or from any other cause.
4. If the legal representative is a lay person his/her rights and obligations must be determined in a special contract.

While maintaining the radical right of convents to administer their own goods, provinces may decide on partial centralization in their economic statute in order to achieve better and more efficient administration.