22 U.S.C. § 6081 — Findings
submitted 30 years ago by Pub. L. 104-114 to r/title-22-FOREIGN-RELATIONS-AND-INTERCOURSE · 475 words · no verdicts yet
Congress finds that property ownership is a fundamental right and that Cuban confiscations and later trafficking harmed owners, commerce, development, and United States policy. It states that United States nationals should have a court remedy to deter exploitation of confiscated property.
Congress finds: (1) the United States Constitution protects a fundamental right to own and enjoy property*; (2) Cuba’s wrongful confiscation of United States nationals’ property and later exploitation at owners’ expense undermines international comity, commerce, and economic development; (3) since Fidel Castro took power in 1959, he has trampled Cuban rights and, through personal despotism, confiscated property of millions of Cubans, thousands of United States nationals, and thousands of Cuban asylum seekers who later became naturalized United States citizens; (4) Cuba should respect Cuban and foreign nationals’ property rights equally; (5) Cuba offers foreign investors interests in, management of, or joint ventures using assets partly confiscated from United States nationals; (6) this "trafficking" gives the current government money, oil, investment, and expertise and undermines United States policy of using an embargo to promote democratic institutions and protect confiscation claims; (7) the State Department warned other governments that transfers to third parties would complicate returning property; (8) the international judicial system lacks fully effective remedies for confiscation and unjust enrichment; (9) international law recognizes a nation’s ability to regulate conduct outside its territory that has or is intended to have substantial effects inside it; (10) the United States Government must protect citizens from foreign confiscations, including through private remedies; and (11) victims should receive a United States court remedy denying traffickers profits from exploiting the seizures.
The Congress makes the following findings:
Individuals enjoy a fundamental right to own and enjoy property* which is enshrined in the United States Constitution.
The wrongful confiscation or taking of property belonging to United States nationals by the Cuban Government*, and the subsequent exploitation of this property at the expense of the rightful owner, undermines the comity of nations, the free flow of commerce, and economic development.
Since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959—
he has trampled on the fundamental rights of the Cuban people; and
through his personal despotism, he has confiscated the property of—
millions of his own citizens;
thousands of United States nationals; and
thousands more Cubans who claimed asylum in the United States as refugees because of persecution and later became naturalized citizens of the United States.
It is in the interest of the Cuban people that the Cuban Government respect equally the property rights of Cuban nationals and nationals of other countries.
The Cuban Government is offering foreign investors the opportunity to purchase an equity interest in, manage, or enter into joint ventures using property and assets some of which were confiscated from United States nationals.
This “trafficking” in confiscated property provides badly needed financial benefit, including hard currency, oil, and productive investment and expertise, to the current Cuban Government and thus undermines the foreign policy of the United States—
to bring democratic institutions to Cuba through the pressure of a general economic embargo at a time when the Castro regime has proven to be vulnerable to international economic pressure; and
to protect the claims of United States nationals who had property wrongfully confiscated by the Cuban Government.
The United States Department of State has notified other governments that the transfer to third parties of properties confiscated by the Cuban Government “would complicate any attempt to return them to their original owners”.
The international judicial system, as currently structured, lacks fully effective remedies for the wrongful confiscation of property and for unjust enrichment from the use of wrongfully confiscated property by governments and private entities at the expense of the rightful owners of the property.
International law recognizes that a nation has the ability to provide for rules of law with respect to conduct outside its territory that has or is intended to have substantial effect within its territory.
The United States Government has an obligation to its citizens to provide protection against wrongful confiscations by foreign nations and their citizens, including the provision of private remedies.
To deter trafficking in wrongfully confiscated property, United States nationals who were the victims of these confiscations should be endowed with a judicial remedy in the courts of the United States that would deny traffickers any profits from economically exploiting Castro’s wrongful seizures.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 104–114, title III, § 301, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 814.)
- 1996Enacted · Pub. L. 104-114 · 110 Stat. 814
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 104-114 on 1996-03-12.
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