Constitutional and Legal Foundations for Sanctioning Powers in Cuban Public Administration. Current Challenges

Abstract

This article has the objective of analyzing the legal foundations of the sanctioning power in Cuban public administration from a Constitutional perspective and from the different sectorial legal dispositions that regulate the administrative contraventions and infractions. The methodology employed for this development was based upon the use of specific legal research methods such as the legal-doctrinal and the judicial analysis. Thus, the content of this article tackles the conceptual definition of this administrative power; the study tackles the approach exercised in different constitutional texts that have governed our country and the dissimilar contravention norms currently enforced. Some considerations are shared with the goal of achieving an adequate regulation from a constitutional perspective. The main conclusion of this study is that, in Cuba, the sanctioning power of the Public Administration is not based upon a single written norm, but that its foundation is found along legal disposition of different ranks (Constitution, laws, law-decrees and decrees).