The History of Cuba Volume IV Part 17

ART. 82. To be Chief Justice or a.s.sociate Justice of the Supreme Court the following qualifications shall be required:

1. To be a Cuban by birth.

2. To be over thirty-five years of age.

3. To be in the full enjoyment of civil and political rights and not to have been condemned to any corporal punishment for common offenses.

4. To have in addition to the foregoing qualifications any one of the following:

To have practiced in Cuba, during ten years at least, the profession of lawyer; or have discharged for the same length of time judicial functions, or have taught law for the same number of years in an official establishment.

The following persons are also eligible for the positions of Chief Justice or a.s.sociate Justices of the Supreme Court, even if not having the qualifications set forth in clauses 1, 2, and 3 of this article:

(a) Those who have served in the judiciary of the time determined by law in a position of equal or immediately inferior category.

(b) Those who, previous to the promulgation of this const.i.tution, served as justices of the supreme court of the island of Cuba.

The time of service in the judiciary shall be computed as time of practice of law for the purpose of qualifying the lawyers to be appointed justices of the supreme court.

ART. 83. The Supreme Court shall have the following powers, in addition to those already vested or hereafter to be vested in it:

1. To take cognizance of cases on a writ of error.

2. To decide conflicts of jurisdiction between courts immediately inferior to it, or not having a common superior.

3. To take cognizance of the cases to which the State on the one side and the provinces or munic.i.p.alities on the other, are parties.

4. To decide as to the const.i.tutionality of the laws, decrees, and regulations when a question of that effect is raised by any party.

SECTION THIRD

GENERAL RULES REGARDING THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

ART. 84. Justice shall be administered gratuitously throughout the entire territory of the Republic.

ART. 85. The courts shall take cognizance of all cases, whether civil, criminal, or between the Government and private parties.

ART. 86. No judicial commissions or extraordinary tribunals, no matter under what name, shall ever be created.

ART. 87. No functionary of the judicial order shall be suspended or removed from his office except for crime or any other grave cause, fully proven, and always after being heard. Nor shall he be transferred without his consent to any other place, unless it is for the manifest benefit of the public service.

ART. 88. All judicial functionaries shall be personally responsible, in the manner and form determined by law, for the violations of law which they may commit.

ART. 89. The salaries of judicial functionaries shall not be changed except at the end of periods of more than five years, and by means of a law. The law, however, shall not give different salaries to positions whose rank, category, and functions are equal.

ART. 90. The courts for the forces of land and sea shall be governed by a special organic law.

t.i.tLE XI

THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

SECTION FIRST

GENERAL PROVISIONS

ART. 91. A province consists of the munic.i.p.al districts established within its limits.

ART. 92. Each province shall have a governor and a provincial council elected directly by the people, in the manner and form established by law.

The number of councilors in each province shall not be less than eight nor more than twenty.

SECTION SECOND

THE PROVINCIAL COUNCILS AND THEIR POWERS

ART. 93. The provincial councils shall have the following powers:

1. To resolve upon matters concerning the provinces which, under the const.i.tution, treaties or laws, are not within the general jurisdiction of the State or the exclusive jurisdiction of the munic.i.p.al councils.

2. To frame the budget of their expenses, providing at the same time for the necessary revenue to meet them, provided that this is done in a manner not inconsistent with the system adopted by the State.

3. To contract loans for public works of provincial interest, provided that at the same time sufficient revenue is raised to meet the payment of interest and princ.i.p.al when due.

Such loans shall not be carried into effect unless they are approved by two-thirds of the munic.i.p.al councils of the province.

4. To impeach before the Senate the governor of their respective province, in the case set forth in paragraph 3 of article 47, when two-thirds of the total number of provincial councilors decide in secret session that this should be done.

5. To appoint and remove, according to law, the provincial employes.

ART. 94. The provincial councils shall have no power to diminish or abolish revenue of permanent character without creating at the same time other revenue to take its place, except in case that the decrease or suppression is due to the decrease or suppression of equivalent permanent expenses.

ART. 95. The resolutions of the provincial councils shall be sent to the governor of the province. If approved, they shall be signed by him; if not, they shall be returned with his objections to the council, wherein the subject shall be again discussed. If after the second discussion the resolution is approved by two-thirds of the total number of councilors it shall become a law.

If the governor does not return the resolution within ten days from the date of reference it shall be considered approved and shall become a law.

ART. 96. The resolutions of the provincial councils may be suspended by the governor of the province or by the President of the Republic, whenever, in their opinion, they are contrary to the const.i.tution, the laws, or any resolutions pa.s.sed by the munic.i.p.al councils in due exercise of their functions; but the right to take cognizance of and pa.s.s upon the claims which may arise out of the said suspension shall be reserved to the courts of justice.

ART. 97. Neither the provincial councils not any section or committees, selected from their members or from persons not members thereof, shall intervene in matters belonging to any cla.s.s of elections.

ART. 98. The provincial councilors shall be personally responsible before the courts in the manner determined by law for whatever may be done by them in the exercise of their functions.

SECTION THIRD

THE GOVERNORS OF PROVINCES AND THEIR POWERS

ART. 99. The governors of provinces shall have the following powers:

1. To comply and cause others to comply, as far as their provinces are concerned, with the laws, decrees, and general rules and regulations of the nation.