Puerto Rico

Abstract

Founding of the system The transfer of sovereignty Puerto Rico’s mixed legal system dates from the Spanish–American War when, under the Treaty of Paris of December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the island, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States as a condition to put a formal end to hostilities. Immediately after the transfer of sovereignty, the United States implemented a military government and put in place some public, private, and language laws based on its own system. On July 13, 1898, the President of the United States, William McKinley, acting as Commander-in-Chief of military forces, issued the General Order 101, ostensibly for application in Cuba. In the absence of similar directives for the military in Puerto Rico, General Nelson A. Miles, the first of a series of military governors, reasoned the order also applied there. General Order 101 provided in part that: Though the powers of the military occupant are absolute and supreme and immediately operate upon the political conditions of the inhabitants, the municipal laws of the conquered territory, such as affect private rights of persons and property and provide for the punishment of crime, are considered as continuing in force, so far as they are compatible with the new order of things, until they are suspended or superseded by the occupying belligerent, and in practice they are not usually abrogated, but they are allowed to remain in force and to be administered by the ordinary tribunals substantially as they were before the occupation. This enlightened practice is, so far, as possible, to be adhered to on the present occasion. Under it, the military governor of the island was vested with absolute power over persons and property in Puerto Rico. On July 29, 1898, General Miles issued a circular proclaiming, almost verbatim, the instructions contained in the first paragraph of General Order 101. Although it would at first appear that the initial goal under General Order 101 was to respect local rules, history shows that political and judicial institutions were profoundly altered by the military governors as well as by others who followed them, even when at times this was not necessary to exert political control of the Island.