ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the history of comparative law in Cuba offers a helpful case study contributing to the development of an eventual comparative legal history of Latin America. In Cuba, the comparative method would be embraced as “one of the most characteristic and fertile products of modern culture in all its manifestations”. There are several factors behind Cuba’s belated independence, but one important reason is vested mostly on causes of economic nature because the Cuban oligarchy avoided entering a war that would damage their commercial interests. Spanish colonial domination on the Cuban island would cease in 1898. After a period of American military intervention, Cuba would arise as an independent national state in 1902. Francisco Carrera Justiz believed that Cuba’s institutional life blossomed from its municipalities, which he viewed as critical to the genesis of the recently founded Cuban state.
