Scheduled to “enter into force upon its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic” the legal instrument repeals Decree-Law number 81 on the Practice of the Legal Profession and the National Organization of Collective Law Firms.

It also annuls “any normative provisions that oppose” what it establishes.

During the final day of the Fourth Ordinary Period of Sessions of the National Assembly of People’s Power (Parliament), in its Tenth Legislature, the Minister of Justice, Oscar Manuel Silvera, presented the draft of the regulations.

In his speech, he stated that “it complements a cycle of provisions that put people in a better position to defend and respect their rights.”

Forty years after Decree-Law 81 came into force, it is essential to modify it and to do so with the rank of Law is inherent to the relevance of the legal profession in the country’s legal system, as it protects people’s fundamental rights, he argued.

With the experience of these years and the mandates of the 2019 Constitution, he pointed out, it is necessary to regulate aspects of the practice of law as a profession.

For the preparation of the Bill, specialists in Law, provincial directors and professors from the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana were consulted, he explained.

Its content is also “based on research on previous regulatory projects and the comparative study of laws on the legal profession in countries such as Spain, Venezuela and Vietnam,” he asserted.

Essentially, he stressed, it is based “on the thinking of (the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution) Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz on the practice of law and the contributions of Commander Machado Ventura to the functioning of collective law firms.”

The Law, he said, “conceptualizes the practice of law essentially as the act of directing, advising, consulting, representing and defending the rights and interests of natural and legal persons.”

Regarding the law, the Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs highlights that it “establishes with special emphasis the guiding principles of the legal profession, the duties and rights of lawyers.”

According to the Committee, it is preceded by laws of the Courts of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office and “is in due correspondence with the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba and the legal system of the nation.”

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