Reforming the Mexican Legal System
[Guest post by DRJ]
I always assumed the American legal system was similar to the Mexican system but the American system works better because America is a more stable society and Mexico is plagued by corruption. Then I read this article in the El Paso Times.
I did not realize how different the legal systems were before Mexico implemented recent sweeping reforms. I hope these reforms and the transparency they bring will help Mexicans improve their government and their lives. They certainly need help given the escalating levels of violence in Mexico. In Juarez alone, 3 off-duty police officers and more than 15 people were murdered in the past few days.
— DRJ
The old way was a bureaucratic system in which lawyers sent written depositions to a judge sitting in an office — not a courtroom. The parties often did not meet face to face and the process dragged on for months if not years.
And I bet you guys all laughed at me when I commented, regarding Justice Thomas’s disdain for oral argument, that nobility demands that it be addressed by commoners only in writing.
nk (34c5da) — 3/25/2008 @ 7:49 pmDRJ…
I find it shocking that you didn’t know that the Mexican system was based on the Napoleanic Code, and that the accussed are essentially considered guilty until they are proven innocent, that judges basically conduct the investigations, and that the accussed will rot in jail until a determination is made – or the right palms are greased.
In the post on Bratton/SWAT, someone said that the LAPD is suffering from the old “a fish rots from the head”. When looking at the system in Mexico, you can double down that in Spades. Is it any wonder that their society is so corrupt, when they are saddled with the worst of all possible Western Judicial Systems. And, then to have a dictatorship of the intelligentsia for 70-years (the PRI). Just unbelievable.
But then, this is just the opinion of an observant, non-lawyer.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 3/25/2008 @ 9:04 pmI’ve never had anything to do with the Mexican legal system and I wasn’t aware it was modeled on the French system. However, I did take a course in law school on the East German legal system when it was still a Soviet state. Does that redeem me any?
DRJ (a431ca) — 3/25/2008 @ 9:16 pmWell, OK! But, that wouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination be considered either Western, or Judicial, but it certainly was a system.
Let’s see, how did that work in the land of the Stasi:
“We think you’re guilty”
“But, I haven’t done anything.”
“You’ve been found guilty.”
“But, what is my crime?”
“You’ve been sentenced to death!”
Bang!
Yeah, that works.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 3/25/2008 @ 9:51 pmGo watch The Lives of Others for East Germany. Good movie.
Joe M. (5d215f) — 3/26/2008 @ 12:46 amAD, that’s mostly right, but FYI, East Germany carried out its last execution in 1981, and formally abolished the death penalty in 1987. That didn’t stop them from shooting people at the border, of course. That’s different.
Xrlq (b71926) — 3/26/2008 @ 4:25 amAnother Drew #2,
Properly administered, the Civil (Napoleanic) pre-trial proceedings work just as well as our Grand Jury system. There is only a limited time that the police/public advocate can hold a suspect on probable cause. The “Prosecutor” is in fact a judge who finds that there is a prima facie case of guilt (and not just probable cause) before someone is bound over for trial. That’s when the presumption of guilt starts. Not at the time of arrest. At trial, the public advocate has to present his evidence once more to the other two judges of the court and to the jury and he still has the ultimate burden of persuasion.
Of course “properly administered” in Mexico may not mean what we think it means.
nk (34c5da) — 3/26/2008 @ 4:58 amand the Napoleonic Code is head over heels better than what France had under the Monarchy.
Techie (ed20d9) — 3/26/2008 @ 11:13 am