Cuba

• The Constitution of 2019, the highest law
• Laws passed by the National Assembly, such as the Penal Code and the Family Code
• Decrees and regulations of the government
• Guidance from the People's Supreme Court to lower courts

• The People's Supreme Court at the top
• Provincial People's Courts and municipal People's Courts
• Military courts for military matters

A law degree, then membership in the national organisation of collective law firms, the main route to practice.

• Lawyers mostly work in state-supported collective law firms, not in independent private firms.
• There is no separate constitutional court; the National Assembly is the highest authority.
• Lay judges sit with professional judges in many courts.
• The legal system keeps its Spanish-origin civil-law roots under a socialist structure.

Spain, Russia, China, Vietnam, Mexico

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Cuba as: Civil law. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• National Assembly of People's Power (Cuba)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.