PROOF OF MARRIAGE.--The ordinary manner to prove a marriage concluded in Cuba is to produce a certificate of the record of the civil registry, and this is the proof required unless the books of the civil registry never existed, or have disappeared, or a question is pending before the tribunals, in which case all kinds of direct evidence are admissible. The uninterrupted status of the parents, together with the certificates of the birth of their children as legitimate, is one competent method of proving the marriage of said parents, unless it is shown that one of the two was bound by a prior marriage. A marriage contracted in a foreign country may be established by showing an authenticated copy of its registration. If such foreign country does not require a regular or authenticated registration the marriage must be proved by competent evidence of the regulations of marriage in the foreign country in question, together with proof that all such regulations were complied with. Should a marriage be contracted in a foreign country between a Cuban and a foreign woman, or between a foreigner and a Cuban woman, and the contracting parties do not make special stipulations with regard to their property, it is understood, when the husband is a Cuban, that he marries under the system of the legal conjugal partnership; and when the wife is a Cuban that she marries under the system of laws in force in the husband's country. ENGAGEMENTS TO MARRY.--Future espousals do not give rise to an obligation to contract marriage. No court will admit a complaint in which their performance is demanded. However, if the promise has been made in a public or private instrument by a person of age, or by a minor in the presence of the person whose consent is necessary for the celebration of the marriage, or when banns have been published, the person who refuses to marry, without just cause, can be obliged to indemnify the other party for the expenses which he or she may have incurred by reason of the promised marriage. An action to recover indemnity for such expenses must be instituted within a year, counted from the day of the refusal to celebrate the marriage. SPANISH PRECEDENTS.--It should be remembered that in throwing off the yoke of Spanish rule the people of Cuba did not change their blood, language or traditions. Just as the law of the United States of America is founded upon the law of England as it existed at the time of the adoption of the American Constitution, so the jurisprudence of the Republic of Cuba has as its foundation the law of Spain as it existed at the time the Republic was established.