In the Civil Code of Cuba we can see not only its recent origin from the Spanish Code, but traces of the Law of the Twelve Tables and the Institutes of Justinian.
Cuba is to-day a Republic composed of six Provinces. The seat of government is located at Havana, where sit the Senate and House of Representatives, which constitute the national legislature.
The Civil Code is the Codigo Civil of Spain, with such changes and modifications as have become effective since Spain lost its sovereignty over Cuba.
The statement of Cuban law which follows is, therefore, predicated upon the Codigo Civil, which by royal decree of May 11, 1888, was extended to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, upon proclamations and orders issued during the recent American military occupation and on the interpretation and construction of the positive law by Cuban courts and jurists.
Marriage.—The law considers marriage as a civil contract, which may be concluded by either a civil (matrimonio civil) or a religious (matrimonio religioso) celebration.
A male cannot marry until he has completed his fourteenth year of age; a female until she has completed her twelfth year.
Marriages contracted by minors under the legal age become, however, ipso facto legal if a day after having arrived at the legal age the parties continue to live together without bringing suit to annul the marriage, or if the female becomes pregnant before the legal age or before the institution of a suit for annulment.
Only such persons as are in the full enjoyment of their reason can contract marriage.
Marriage is forbidden to all persons who suffer from absolute or relative physical impotency for the purposes of procreation.
Persons ordained in sacris and those professed in an approved canonical order, who are bound by a solemn pledge of chastity, cannot lawfully conclude marriage until they have obtained the proper canonical dispensation.