National Law Prize Awarded to Jurist Pérez Gallardo

March 1, 2025

The National Union of Jurists of Cuba annually awards the National Law Prize "Carlos Manuel de Céspedes", with the purpose of recognizing the life and work of jurists who have maintained an outstanding professional trajectory, in teaching, research or the practice of the profession. This Prize was first established in May 2005 at the "VI Congress of organization".

The Jury designated by the Board of Directors of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba, agreed to grant the National Prize, corresponding to the year 2024, to Dr C. Leonardo Bernardino Pérez Gallardo, a distinguished jurist, who has dedicated his life to the development of Legal Sciences.

The solemn ceremony where the Prize will be formally and publicly presented will take place in the Aula Magna of the University of Havana, Thursday, February 27, 2025, at 10:00 am, with the presence of distinguished personalities in Law and Cuban intellectuals.

Dr. Leonardo Bernardino Pérez Gallardo graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Havana in 1989 with a gold medal, and has served as a professor at that same faculty for more than three decades. He holds the academic rank of Full Professor. He is a Master's degree holder in Private Law from the University of Valencia, and a specialist in Civil Law and Notarial Law from the University of Havana. Doctor in Legal Sciences from said University since 2002. Notary of the Civil Registry and Notary Office Directorate of the Ministry of Justice since 2001 to the present.

At the National Union of Jurists of Cuba, he has presided since 2018 over the Cuban Society of Civil and Family Law; he is vice-president of the Cuban Notary Society since 2007; he has presided over the Editorial Board of the Cuban Law Review since 2008 and has been a member of the National Board of Directors since 2022.

He is a full academic member of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba since 2024 and an honorary academic member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation of Spain since 2006.

Pérez Gallardo has an extensive trajectory in Cuban law. Photo: Union of Jurists of Cuba.

He was a member of the drafting commission of the Cuban Family Code, approved by referendum in 2022. Furthermore, he has been an integral part of the teams that have drafted many other transcendental legal norms for the country, such as the Decree Law on Economic Contracting, the Notary Law and the Public Health Law, among others. At the regional level he holds membership in the Group for the Harmonization of Law in Latin America (GADAL).

He has more than five hundred publications including monographic works, articles published in specialized journals and collective works. He has been a speaker and lecturer at more than three hundred events and conferences held; as well as an invited professor and lecturer on more than two hundred occasions by multiple universities and academies in several American, European and Asian nations.

He has accumulated more than one hundred teaching or scientific, labor and political awards and recognitions. Among the most notable are three awards or recognitions from the Academy of Sciences of Cuba; two special awards from the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment; the Distinction for Cuban Education awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education; the José Tey Medal awarded by the Council of State of the Republic of Cuba; and the Frank País orders of First degree and Carlos J. Finlay.

His academic, pedagogical, intellectual and research competence; his vocation for the training of new generations of jurists and researchers and also his highest degree of integrity, dedication and altruism, allow us to recognize in Dr C. Leonardo Bernardino Pérez Gallardo an outstanding performance in the practice and development of Law in Cuba.