The Laws and Legal System of a Free-Market Cuba: A Prospectus for Business

The re-entry of foreign-based businesses into Cuba will require a complete overhaul of Cuba’s laws and legal institutions. It will also require enactment of major new legislation there, designed to enable and facilitate modern business transactions. Travieso-Diaz identifies these necessary legal, political, and economic changes, integrating legal and economic concepts in a way that businesspeople can understand and use in determining when it will be safe for them to reestablish business ties with Cuba. An important, readable resource for corporate management and their academic colleagues specializing in international business, trade, and investment.

Using a practical, results-oriented approach, Travieso-Diaz organizes his book into three parts. In Part One, he discusses the specific political and economic changes that must occur and how U.S. policy must be modified to permit resumption of commerce between the two countries. Part Two covers the main legal concerns of a foreign business entity seeking to invest in Cuba, such as the resolution of property confiscation claims by U.S. and Cuban nationals, the enactment of a suitable foreign investment law, and the development of a program for the privatization of state-owned enterprises. Part Three surveys other legal issues important to foreign investors and to others who prefer trade with Cuba, rather than investment in it. Travieso-Diaz also provides checklists of changes that must occur in each area he covers-trade, investment, privatization-to provide business decisionmakers with a way of determining when it makes sense to enter the Cuban market. He also identifies the laws that the Cuban government must enact, and the most favorable form they should take, to encourage full participation from other nations.