Dr . Remigio told us there are two types of judges in the Cuban judicial system : professional judges and lay judges . Professional judges are elected , and required to have legal training depending on the court to which they are elected . They serve terms of 10 years for the Supreme Court , five years for provisional courts , and two years for the municipal courts . Judges are not required to be members of the Communist Party and a substantial number are not , Dr . Remigio said .
Under Cuban law , judges are required to be independent in their judgment and free from governmental influence , although one could see how this might be a difficult standard to oversee . Moreover , defendants have no right to a jury trial .
One particularly interesting note is that citizen participation in the system is reflected through the selection of lay judges who serve for terms of five years , for about 30 days a year . Lay judges serve alongside professional judges at every level of the system , and they tend to reflect the diversity of Cuban society in terms of race , gender , education and employment and they continue their regular jobs while also serving as lay judges , Dr . Remigio said .
The 39 judges on the Cuban Supreme Court ( there are just nine justices on the U . S . Supreme Court ) have specialty jurisdictions . For example , cases are divided into sections for criminal matters civil , family law , administrative , mercantile and trade , labor , military issues , and constitutional matters . The Court handles about 10,000 cases a year ; however , notwithstanding this extraordinary number , decisions are generally made within a year of oral argument .
Two important issues were emphasized by the president ; however , we are still unclear on aspects of each one .
Rubén Remigio with Supreme Court visitors .
First , he emphasized that the court does not rely on “ precedent .” We probed that issue with him . Simply put , from the perspective of U . S . legal decision making , “ precedent ” is being aware of the decisions reached and laws made in related or similarly situated cases .
We asked , Dr . Remigio how similar cases in Cuba have similar outcomes , or if different , how are differences explained ? We are familiar with the principle of transformation in Cuban law ; however , the issue of deciding similarly related cases has continued relevance .
How can one decide cases as a matter of law without knowing how and
Elaine Jones , Rubén Remigio and Wade Henderson why similar matters were resolved ? He reminded us that Cuba ’ s high court sits by subject matter ; in other words , the justices are experts in some areas of the law . Also , he said , this expertise equips them to identify and discuss similarities and differences among related cases . We believe this issue requires further discussion . One question would be : how do the lower courts resolve the issue of deciding related cases ? Alas , time did not permit further discussion .
The second issue which , in our view , requires greater clarity is the use of lay judges in deciding cases throughout the legal system — at all levels . How are lay judges not intimidated by their learned colleagues , the professional judges ?
In our relatively short conversation with Dr . Remigio , we found Cuba ’ s legal system , as he explained it , to be intriguing .
It would be enlightening for us to understand fully how this system works . n
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