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There are numerous free websites that can assist in locating Cuban primary law, as well as secondary information on Cuban legal topics. Links to available English translations (extremely limited) of Cuban law are listed below at right.
Havana, Cuba
Museo de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba
Cuba has a three-tier court system, plus a system of military courts. All courts operate with professional and lay judges.
The People's Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo Popular) (TSP) has a Governing Council (Consejo de Gobierno del Tribunal Supremo Popular) (CGTSP) that issues instructions (instrucciones), agreements (acuerdos), and opinions (dictámenes), which are binding on all courts.
The Office of the Attorney General (Fiscalía General de la República) (FGR) has national, provincial, municipal, and military offices.
People's Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo Popular) (TSP) - The TSP's website contains information on the structure of the courts and requirements for professional and lay judges. Access to the TSP's judgments is provided, as well as the decisions of the CGTSP.
Cienfuegos, Cuba
The PCC is the only approved political party in Cuba. At the top of its organizational structure are the Secretariat (Secretariado), the Central Committee (Comité Central), and the Politburo (Buró Político). The PCC also has provincial and municipal committees. There have been eight congresses of the PCC since 1975. Raúl Castro stepped down from his role as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the PCC in April 2021.
Santa Clara, Cuba
The following versions of the new 2019 Cuban Constitution are available on the WWW. Note that the subscription database "World Constitutions Illustrated" in HeinOnline, offers historical versions of the Cuban Constitution, as well as an English-language translation of the newly approved 2019 Constitution, which went into effect on April 10, 2019.
Museo de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba
The Constitute Project provides English-language translations of the 2018 and 2019 draft versions of the Cuban Constitution. It also offers the capability to search for constitutional clauses by topic and make cross-constitutional comparisons. The translations are provided by Oxford University Press. Note that there is now a Spanish-language version of Constitute (Constitute en español).
The new 2019 Cuban Constitution was published in the April 10, 2019, edition of the country's Official Gazette.
Havana, Cuba
Other than the 2019 Constitution, and the sources listed below, there is little Cuban primary law available in English-language translation. Lawrence Publishing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, however, recently published a three-volume English-language translation of Cuban civil, commercial, and public laws. The LUC Law Library has a copy of this set.
Cuba's law on foreign investment is available in English on Granma's website. The law, and its associated regulatory framework, were published in an extraordinary edition of the Gaceta Oficial on April 16, 2014.
The Center for Cuban Studies published an English translation of the original 1975 Family Code that is available via the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC). According to the volume, it is the "official Cuban translation."
The main sources of law in Cuba are the Constitution; laws (leyes) (promulgated by the National Assembly); decree-laws (decretos-leyes) promulgated by the Council of State; and decrees (decretos) promulgated by the Council of Ministers. There are also numerous regulatory instruments, including resolutions (resoluciones) and regulations (reglamentos). Some subject-specific laws and administrative provisions are posted on the related government department or ministry's website.
Museo de la Revolución, Havana, Cuba
The purpose of this website, jointly administered by several international organizations (FAO, IUCN, and UNEP) is to provide the "most comprehensive possible global source of information on environmental law." The site includes a database of national environmental legislation, which includes Cuba.
Choose the "Legislación" tab to access laws related to finance, prices, tariffs, and taxes. This is part of the Ministry of Finance and Prices' website.
This is the Cuban government's daily gazette, similar in function to the United States' "Federal Register." PDF versions are available back to 2009.
Juriscuba provides access to laws, administrative provisions, and instructions of the Cuban Supreme Court's Governing Council. Many of the links go directly to the cited Gaceta Oficial issue. Sponsorship is attributed to an attorney based in Mexico, and the updating schedule is unclear.
Selected Cuban codes, the 2019 Constitution, and various individual pieces of legislation are posted in this section of the Gaceta Oficial's website.
Tthe ANPP's laws (leyes) and agreements (acuerdos), and the Council of State's decree-laws (decretos-leyes), are posted under the "Labor Legislativo" tab.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) maintains NATLEX--a database of national labor, social security, and human rights legislation. The database currently contains over 65,000 records, covering more than 190 countries. Records are provided in only one of the ILO's official languages, which are English, Spanish, and French. NATLEX is browsable by country and subject, and there is also an "Advanced Search" function available.
This is a database of national cultural heritage laws in the vernacular, as well as any available official or unofficial English translations. The database may be searched by country, heritage category, theme, type of instrument, and also by language.
WIPO Lex is an international database of Intellectual Property laws and treaties, maintained by the World Intellectual Property Organization. The database is searchable by country and subject, and there is also keyword search capability.
The Cuban 27N Movement Web Archive preserves and provides access to a broad range of websites related to the Cuban27 Movement initiated in November 2020 by protesters in Havana, Cuba, demanding freedom of expression and other civil rights. Built by Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez (Princeton University), Jill Baron (Dartmouth College), Holly Ackerman (Duke University), and Lizabel Mónica (Princeton University), the Archive focuses on websites produced by activists and supporters within and outside of Cuba, non-governmental organizations, Cuban alternative presses, and online periodicals on politics, art, and culture in order to guarantee that these potentially ephemeral websites are preserved and remain accessible to researchers and scholars from years to come.
The Cuban Research Institute is located at Florida International University. Its website features information on Cuba, U.S.-Cuba relations, and the Cuban-American community. The site also has a "Research" section that contains various reports.
Compiled by staff at the Law Library of Congress, the "Guide to Law Online" covers about 240 countries. The entry for Cuba includes links to various versions of the Constitution, selected legislation, and government agencies.
Edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, the Handbook is an interdisciplinary bibliography of published works pertaining to the general topic of Latin American Studies. The Handbook is updated annually.
Las Damas de Blanco is a group of Cuban women who are fighting for the release of family members imprisoned for political reasons.
According to the publisher, LatAm-Studies is "is a database service dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of research on Latin America and the Caribbean." Although this is a subscription service, some content is available without charge via the website. Most sources are in Spanish.
LANIC is a comprehensive website dedicated to a variety of Latin American topics, including law and justice, political science, and human rights. According to LANIC's editors at the University of Texas at Austin, the site contains over 12,000 urls and is one of the largest sources of Latin American content on the WWW. Note that the site, however, is no longer being updated.
Located in The Hague, the Peace Palace Library serves the International Court of Justice and has been collecting international legal materials since 1913. The Library's website provides access to its online catalogue as well as various research guides.
This is a large source of political information on Latin America. Links to primary law are included, along with extensive information on national political parties and electoral data and systems. According to the site, it is a "non-governmental project of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Georgetown University in collaboration with institutions like the Secretariat for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States and FLACSO-Chile, and also with the support of other organizations and entities in the region."
Refword is an international database, organized by country, and maintained by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). The database contains a collection of reports and policy documents relating to refugee status and human rights issues. There are over 1,000 documents pertaining to Cuba, some of which are available in English.
The U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council is based in New York City. Its website provides information for the U.S. business community, and it also hosts an active blog.
The State Department's "U.S. Relations with Cuba" page provides information on U.S.-Cuba relations, Cuba's membership in international organizations, and links to the Department's Human Rights Reports on Cuba.
The Universidad de La Habana is the oldest university in Cuba. The Law School's site provides information on the legal profession and law school program.
This is an extensive online collection of 60,000+ human rights treaties and other human rights documents. Numerous links are also provided to human rights websites. Additionally, there is a site-specific search engine available, and a section on "Resources for Researching Country Conditions."
Attorneys work in various settings, although they are not allowed to be self-employed. Most lawyers practice in collective law firms (bufetes colectivos) that are overseen by the National Organization of Collective Law Firms.
The National Union of Cuban Jurists serves as a type of national bar association and has its own Scientific Societies (Sociedades Científicas).
Some lawyers have been practicing independently at their own risk, such as those at the human rights firm, Centro Cubalex, in Havana. The head of that office, Laritza Diversent, however, was granted asylum in the United States.
EcuRed is the Cuban version of Wikipedia. Its sponsorship is not entirely clear, but it is seemingly controlled by the Cuban government. It can be a good starting point for research on Cuban law and related topics. Spanish only.
Cienfuegos, Cuba
Political and mass organizations serve important political and social functions in Cuba, and they represent diverse sectors of the population. Only a few, however, have their own websites. For descriptions of the various political and mass organizations, see EcuRed. Among the largest and most important are the Cuban Workers Federation (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba) (CTC), the Association of Small Farmers (Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños) (ANAP), and the Federation of University Students (Federación Estudiantil Universitaria) (FEU).
Santa Clara, Cuba
The Database contains Fidel Castro's speeches, interviews, and press conferences in English translation. Coverage is 1959-1996, and the source was the United States' Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). The Database was compiled by LANIC, the Latin American Network Information Center at the University of Texas at Austin.
The National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, which is affiliated with the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, maintains the NatLaw World Database. This database contains laws, regulations, case law, and secondary source materials related to trade and investment for countries in the Americas. Most of the materials are in Spanish, although many English translations are available. Access to the majority of the database's content is by subscription, although some free materials are available.