IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 3 ENGLISH | Page 60

• There is NO free (unfettered) practice of the legal profession.
Each one of these aspects is basic to a properly
functioning judicial system anywhere in the
world, but Cuba does not accept these elements in
its legal order, even though they are present in
most nations around the globe. What does this
difference imply?
Absence of a Court of Constitutional Guarantees
The Constitution is real and concrete evidence of
the social pact that Jean Jacob Rousseau spoke of.
It represents the consent of the entire population
(or the majority) regarding certain norms that reflect a condition in which the people have delegated their power to leaders who must use it for
the complete and total benefit of those who confided in them to move the country forward towards the teleological end expressed in the Constitution. These leaders hold this power conferred
unto them by the nation’s true sovereigns only
temporarily.
The norms and goals contained within a Constitution function like paradigms, like postulates
that guarantee benefits to all citizens, and create
and effectuate the State’s political institutions and
framework.
Yet, the Constitution written and approved by citizens is not, on its own, an absolute guarantee that
it will be respected and followed. There must be
certain complementary laws, too.
For example, if the Constitution says that citizens
have the right of association, but there is no clear
and effective mechanism to guarantee it, it is then
possible that the right of association will be more
like an illusion. In the long (or short) term, the
document will be like a dead letter. This is why
democratic countries have established Courts of
Constitutional Guarantees, whose functions are to
guarantee whatever is proposed in the Constitution, and see that the document does not become
a worthless piece of paper.
In the event of a violation of one the Constitution’s laws, whether flagrant or not, the Court of
Guarantees ensures the immediate restitution of

60

the legal norm that was violated (no matter who
is responsible). It will return to those affected the
safety and rights they have been constitutionally
granted. Anywhere this is not the case, the role a
Constitution can play is sad indeed. It may have
no role whatsoever.
The Constitutional Court has primary importance
in guaranteeing that Constitutional Law be protected and practiced.
NO independent judiciary
It has been many years since Montesquieu bequeathed to us the following great truth, in The
Spirit of the Laws: “Where there is no separation
of State powers, there is no Constitution.”
This idea is at the core of States of Law, which
subm