NCJ Number
156381
Journal
Law and Society Review Volume: 29 Issue: 1 Dated: (1995) Pages: 65-101
Date Published
1995
Length
37 pages
Annotation
In 1973, the Cuban government abolished the private practice of law and replaced it with a system of law collectives that were designed to provide low-cost legal services to the public in ways consistent with the ideology of a nonadversarial relationship between lawyers and the state.
Abstract
The relationship between ideological and legal bases for the socialist practice of law in Cuba and the actual practice of law in one collective are examined. Using a combination of documentary and ethnographic information to reconstruct the daily practice of law in the collective, the author considers ways in which Cuban attorneys serve their clients and pursue their own professional goals within an ideological framework that stresses a nonadversarial model. Particular attention is paid to criminal defense which, more than civil cases, often requires attorneys to balance client interests against the socialist ideal. As intermediaries between citizens and the state, these attorneys often find ways to use the formal framework of substantive and procedural law to represent clients, despite an official ideology that emphasizes nonadversarial law. 51 references and 25 footnotes