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International and National Resources
Welcome to the news page of the Justice in Mexico Project website, a research project of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.
On this page, news and analysis are featured on justice-related issues in Mexico and are divided among three broad categories: Order, Accountability, and Equality. These essential components structure our definition of the rule of law.*
To optimize presentation of the material, we present a bi-weekly news summary organized into these three categories, understanding however that these groupings frequently overlap. Furthermore we have organized the news content thematically with summaries produced from various articles dealing with similar justice-related developments. So, multiple articles dealing with a recurring subject in the press, such as the introduction of oral argument at the sub-national level, would be grouped under one frequently updated synopsis. Nevertheless, highly compelling individual articles may also warrant their own stand-alone summary.
About the categorization:
By Order, we refer to “the regulation of individual behavior within society under the law” and related content on this page addresses the provision of security, the regulation of social conduct, and the resolution of grievances according to an established legal code. On the most recently updated page, articles dealing with crime indicators in Mexico and with the country’s penal and reformatory systems are included under this heading.
Accountability succinctly defined refers to the responsibility “of the state and its representatives under the law.” Related content hence addresses the State’s commitment to safeguard the rights of individuals and to obey the established legal order. Corresponding news content discusses topics related to official corruption in the judicial system, as well as the performance of those government agencies tasked with crime prevention, investigation, and information-gathering.
The third category comprising our definition of the rule of law is Equality, fundamentally referring here to the “access to justice” that is enjoyed by an individual or a group. “Access to justice” signals the efficient and predictable enforcement of the law, as well as the equal treatment before the law, that individuals in a modern society may come to expect from their government. Related content then addresses efforts to reform the Mexican justice system in order to inspire the public’s greater trust in the system.
* See Rios, Alejandra and David Shirk. 2006. “Introduction” Wayne Cornelius and David Shirk (eds.) Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico. Forthcoming
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