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I. INTRODUCTION
The rapid collapse of communism in Eastern Europe led many in academic and policy circles to accept that capitalism had emerged as the default global economic modus operandi.1 Remarkably, ten of the former Warsaw Pact countries succeeded in joining the European Union only fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Their accession into global and regional markets and regulatory systems was an extraordinary feat considering their simultaneous political and economic transitions:2 E.U. accession was conditioned upon both political and economic reform.3 Political scientists, legal theorists, and economists began to assess the applicability of the dual Eastern European transition model with past and future democratizations and economic liberalizations.4 Logically, a post-Castro Cuba raises questions about whether a similar evolution might occur.5
As an analogous socioeconomic and political evolution in the Caribbean seems ever more forthcoming, looking to the Eastern European transitions is quite tempting. With the resignation of Fidel Castro as president, and his personal hegemony in a state of decline, die political future of the Partido Comunista de Cuba (PCC) is far from certain. The outcome of the possible economic liberalization and privatization programs in Cuba is central to the regional interests of the United States. Thus, the form and substance of a setdement agreement of the outstanding property claims currently held against Cuba, along with basic political and economic reform, will affect the political and economic dynamics of U.S.-Cuban relations for decades to come.6
Virtually all Eastern European countries adopted constitutional and legal frameworks permitting them to integrate into the larger European Economic Community as well as the global marketplace.7 Establishing institutions for protecting property rights, defining those rights, and adjudicating outstanding property claims were all key to the reform packages introduced in Eastern Europe.8 Yet property rights and economic freedoms are predicated on the underlying constitutional framework. A key factor in ascertaining how compensation for expropriated property is calculated and distributed will be by how constitutionalism develops in postcommunist Cuba.
Cuba is an open market to most of the world, yet its biggest potential market, the United States, is unavailable. The people of Cuba have lived under the weight of political oppression and the omnipotent presence of the state in their daily lives. What lessons can be drawn from...