that the norm contained in the Code of the Notarial Profession should govern in this case and exclude the admission of a United States citizen as a notary. 12. He further indicates that the CANG's ruling ignores Article 36(e) of the Judiciary Act, which provides that "any real right acquired under a law and in accordance therewith shall subsist where this law is superseded by another; but the provisions of the new law shall take precedence with respect to its exercise and duties, as well as to its extinction." Therefore, he says, the obligations acquired by Guatemala with the adoption of its new Constitution in 1986 take precedence over prior law contained in the Code of the Notarial Profession of 1946. 13. He maintains that the State may not require him to change his citizenship in order to exercise the profession for which he was educated, trained, and sworn in the country. 14. He also claims that the State is mistaken in its contention that because a public notary is a civil functionary, the profession should be reserved for Guatemalans, given that regional doctrine distinguishes between civil service (funciones públicas) and civil functionaries (funcionarios públicos). He points out that there are jurisdictions, such as Bolivia and Venezuela, where the office of notary is a government job (with a government salary) and the government has the power to appoint notaries selectively; in such jurisdictions a citizenship requirement might be considered reasonable. In contrast, in systems such as those adopted in Puerto Rico and Guatemala, notaries are not public employees. They are not paid by the government, and citizens may choose among various notaries as service providers. In such circumstances, according to the alleged victim, imposing a citizenship requirement represents discrimination with no rational basis. 2 15. As regards the exhaustion of domestic remedies, he claims that he has exhausted the applicable remedies. Specifically, he states that, initially, he filed an application for admission to the CANG as a notary, which was rejected. Next, he lodged an appeal with the governing board of the CANG, which also produced negative results. He therefore appealed to the Assembly of Presidents of the Professional Associations of Guatemala, which issued a ruling reaffirming the decision adopted by the CANG. In view of this situation, the petitioner states that he filed an amparo action with the Third Division of the Court of Appeals, which confirmed the decision of the Assembly of Presidents of the Professional Associations of Guatemala. 16. He states that he then filed an amparo appeal of this decision with the Court of Constitutionality. On June 14, 2004, he received notice of the said court's final judgment, to the effect that the amparo action "had been allowed" but that nevertheless his immediate admission as a "notary" had not been ordered and that he was being required to apply for Guatemalan citizenship before he could be admitted. He indicates that this would force him to give up his current citizenship. He states that with this decision, all remedies have been exhausted, since the Court of Constitutionality is the highest court of Guatemala, and its decisions cannot be appealed. 2 The petitioner cites several examples. In Germany, while all future lawyers must graduate from a national institution, noncitizen lawyers are allowed to practice. In Canada and Mexico there are also restrictions on noncitizens, but he states that they have been abandoned for reasons of human rights and the absence of a rational justification for maintaining them. The Mexican case is particularly interesting. Although current law maintains the Mexican citizenship requirement, he states that many noncitizens have had a legal career in Mexico for which they have had to bring an amparo action, because in practice there is a lengthy precedent of favorable outcomes in these actions. He adds that in the country of which he is a citizen, the United States, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of citizenship in the specific case of notaries and that there are therefore Guatemalans who fully exercise their profession of notary in that country.