Mr. Squiers to Mr. Hay.

No. 520.]

Sir: I have the honor to forward herewith translation of a law passed by the Cuban Congress, signed by the President on March 31 and published in the Official Gazette April 1, establishing a procedure that enables the constitutionality of laws, decrees, regulations, etc., to be passed upon by the supreme court.

I am, etc.,

H. G. Squiers,
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[Inclosure.]

Signed by the President March 31, 1903; promulgated in the Official Gazette April 1, 1903.

Article 1. All controversies between parties over the constitutionality of a law, decree, or regulation shall be decided exclusively by the supreme court of justice in the manner and by the procedure this law provides.

Art. 2. The supreme court shall also decide exclusively in the manner this law provides, and when subject of a controversy between parties whether or not any law, decree, regulation, order, or ruling in force on the 20th day of May, 1902, is contrary to the constitution in conformity with the provisions of the seventh transitory provision of the constitution.

Art. 3. If any of the parties claim or allege in a civil, criminal, or administrative suit the unconstitutionality of a law, decree, or regulation, the judge or court on whom it is incumbent to decide such suit will refrain from rendering a decision upon such point, so stating in the decision, and the parties may interpose appeal or have the recourse for annulment before the supreme court provided by existing laws, resting the same on such unconstitutionality.

The recourse shall be interposed and supported in the manner determined by existing laws of procedure, and the supreme court shall expressly determine in its decision such alleged unconstitutionality.

Art. 4. Although the suit may be one in which the recourse for annulment or appeal before the supreme court is not authorized, the recourse for annulment or appeal before the supreme court for breach of law against the decision in last instance may be interposed and it shall be rested exclusively on the unconstitutionality of a law, decree, or regulation. The recourse shall be regulated by existing law, and an article of the constitution must be cited as the law infringed.

Art. 5. The remedy the preceding article authorizes will not suspend the proceeding, and in order that it may be continued there shall remain with the judge or court a verbatim copy of the decision appealed and other parts of the record the judicial authority may deem necessary. Such copy will be made within the maximum period of five days, save in the case provided for in article 20.

Art. 6. The unconstitutionality of a law, decree, or regulation may be reason for the recourse for annulment, although it may not have been brought up or alleged in the suit.

Art. 7. The public prosecutor must participate in the said recourse as one of the parties and attend the hearing before the court.

Art. 8. Any person on whom a law, decree, or regulation that he deems unconstitutional is enforced outside of judicial proceedings will have the right to state the same in writing, within the five days following the notification and to the authority or functionary ordering such enforcement, informing them of his intention to appeal to the supreme court of justice to decide the controversy. However, when the matter in question is that of a resolution of a provisional council the interested party must ask, as a prior step, the governor of the province to suspend the same, and if he denies the suspension, then the President of the Republic.

Should it be a resolution of an ayuntamiento, the interested party must first ask the alcalde to suspend it. If he denies the suspension it must then be asked of the governor of the province, and if he also denies it, then of the President of the Republic.

The recourse provided by the preceding paragraph having been exhausted, the right of the interested parties is then free to interpose before the supreme court the recourse to which this article refers against the disposition giving rise to it.

The petition for suspension must be decided by the functionary to whom made within the exact period of eight days.

If the disposition in question shall have come directly from a governor of a province, an alcalde, or functionary of the administration against whose acts and resolutions a recourse of complaint or appeal is authorized, and what is ordered is not based on a preexisting law, decree, regulation, or provisional or municipal resolution, the recourse before the supreme court shall be established against the administrative decision having definitive character as provided by existing law.

The provisions of this article do not prevent the functionaries to whom articles 96 and 108 of the constitution refer from using, as a right of office and independently one of another, the power of suspension said articles confer on them.

Art. 9. The authority or functionary to whom the document mentioned in the preceding article is delivered shall deliver to the appellant, within the three days following, a verbatim copy of the resolution or order originating the controversy and cite all the parties to appear before the supreme court within the ten days following such delivery. The period of time shall be fifteen days for appeals established in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba and Puerto Principe.

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Art. 10. The authority or functionary who makes such citation shall communicate by mail the date of same to the chief justice of the supreme court.

Art 11. The appellant must appear within the period of time fixed by the chief justice of the supreme court, in person or by attorney with sufficient power, annexing the certification which shall have been delivered to him, the documentary evidence he may consider advisable, and a document, signed by an attorney, in which he shall set forth the case clearly and succinctly and allege his reasons for claiming the unconstitutionality of the law, decree, or regulation, with an express mention of the article of the constitution he believes infringed.

There must also be presented at the same time as many copies of the document and accompanying papers as there are parties cited or notified, and one additional for the public prosecutor.

Art. 12. If the resolution giving rise to the controversy shall have come from a provincial council or an ayuntamiento, these corporations shall have the right to appoint a representative before the supreme court within the period of citation, which for the purpose will have been communicated to their president. This representative shall accredit his status by presenting the official communication in which he is appointed.

Art. 13. The appellant having presented the document, the chief justice of the supreme court shall refer the same to the court’s public prosecutor, and to the other parties cited, and to the representative of the provincial council or ayuntamiento who may have appeared, giving him one of the copies of the document and papers so that he may answer in writing, with the papers he may consider advisable and a copy of all for each party and the public prosecutor, within the common period of ten days. This document shall be limited to defining the case and setting forth the reasons there may be to oppose or support what is petitioned.

Art. 14. The chief justice of the tribunal shall immediately fix a day for hearing, which shall be effected within fifteen days following the presentation of the papers to which article 11 refers or at the expiration of the period granted therefor.

Art. 15. The hearing of this controversy, and likewise the recourse for annulment or appeal in which the unconstitutionality of a law, decree, Or regulation is brought up, shall be had before the supreme court in full, the clerk of government (secretario de gobierno) of said court acting as clerk in this case.

Art. 16. In the papers which article 13 refers to, or in the hearing, any of the parties may oppose the granting of the appeal for breach of the rules established in articles 8 and 11. The court also, by its inherent power, may declare the appeal defective for the same reasons.

Art. 17. Decision must be rendered within the five days following the termination of the hearing, and shall be notified within the three days following its date to the parties in appearance, and communicated by mail within the same period to the authority or functionary from whom the resolution giving rise to the decision emanated.

Art. 18. The decisions to which the foregoing article refers must be published in the Official Gazette within the ten days following the date on which they are rendered.

Art. 19. The proceeding established in article 8 et seq. may be utilized by provincial councils when the governor of the province or the President of the Republic suspends their resolutions as contrary to the constitution, as provided by the constitution in articles 96 and 108. Ayuntamientos may also utilize this proceeding when the alcalde, the governor of a province, or the President of the Republic suspend their resolutions as contrary to the constitution, as provided by the constitution in articles 96 and 108.

The suspension decreed shall continue in force until the supreme court revokes it definitively.

Art. 20. On petition of one of the parties, and after hearing the other parties in appearance and the public prosecutor, the supreme court may order the suspension of the resolution giving rise to the appeal when its execution may occasion irreparable damages. The suspension may be ordered at any stage of the proceeding. If such suspension is ordered, bond to stand by the results shall be required of the party petitioning such suspension. In this case the court may also order that such measures as it considers necessary to guarantee the enforcement of the decision appealed for be adopted before the suspension.

Art. 21. The bond to which the preceding article refers must necessarily consist of cash or public securities of the State or preferential obligations of an ayuntamiento, at the quoted price of the day on which the suspension is decided, and shall be deposited in the treasury of the Republic.

Art. 22. The order of suspension shall not be carried out until the bond is deposited and accredited in court records with due precaution.

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Art. 23. The decisions which in conformity with this law the supreme court may render shall have the same effect as executory decisions of said court in civil matters.

Art. 24. None of the periods of time this law refers to can be extended and the number of days will be understood as working days.

Art. 25. With respect to condemnation to payment of costs, and the payment thereof, the supreme court shall apply the rules established for recourse for annulment in Order 92, series of 1899, and other provisions of law in force.

Art. 26. The notifications and citations to be made by virtue of this law shall be effected in the manner prescribed by the existing laws of civil procedure.

Art. 27. All laws, decrees, and regulations in conflict with this law are revoked.