“The [1940] Constitution is understood to be the basic and supreme law of the land—to define the country’s political structure, regulate the functioning of government agencies and determine the boundaries of their activities. It must be sui generis, stable, enduring—and to a certain extent inflexible.”— Fidel Castro (October 16, 1953) On January 1, 1959, following […]

Over the past seven years, the world has witnessed the transformation of a number of communist-controlled countries into democratic regimes. Among the myriad of expectations and questions arising from this trend is the resolution of the status of confiscated private property by the formerly communist governments. By analyzing the treatment of former owners by the […]

Notes[ref]The comments of Jorge Pérez-López and René Costales on an earlier draft of this paper are gratefully acknowledged.[/ref] Upon assuming power in 1959, Fidel Castro’s revolutionary government began to implement an aggressive national reforestation program. In large measure this program responded to a grave national concern given the country’s deforestation trend, but also dovetailed with […]

There is no design control, no procurement document control, no controls on materials and purchases, no control equipment ( . . . ) Who is going to operate this plant? The indispensable international requirement for operation of a nuclear reactor is that the operator be trustworthy that people believe that this person will respect international […]

Notes[ref]This paper draws heavily from a paper prepared by Julia Sagebien titled “Foreign Trade and Investment in Cuba After February 24, 1996: Life Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” delivered in Ottawa on May 17, 1996. However, the views presented here are exclusively those of the author.[/ref] This paper characterizes the situation that Cuba […]