Mexico's Legal System

Mexico and Its Legal System

1. Mexico as country

During three centuries (1519-1821), Mexico, as a colony, was politically and economically controlled and militarily dominated by Spain. Spanish law Spanish law governed all aspects of the social and economic life of its largest possession in the New World, initially by the direct application of the Spanish laws, codes, and regulations, and later, by the execution of the “Recopilación de las Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias” a collection of important pieces of Spanish legislation adapted to suit the specific and peculiar conditions predominating in the Nueva España (New Spain) at that time.

Historically, Mexico served three fundamental objectives for Spain's policies: first, its huge and varied natural resources and numerous domestic peoples were perceived and treated as a source of immense wealth and cheap labor for the exclusive benefit of Spain. Second, the New Spain was utilized as a strategic territorial base for the conquest and domination of other lands and resources in the Americas; and, third, the new Spanish colony provided Spain with the opportunity to propagate the Catholic faith   -as a component of Spain's culture, mutually with the Spanish language- by evangelizing the endemic peoples in the Western Hemisphere. The sword and the cross were the salient symbols of Spain during this long colonial period.

Therefore, it would only be logical to expect certain remnants and influences of Spanish law in today's Mexican law.

1. Form of Government

        Mexico’s form of government and political structure came from its current Federal Constitution, formulated in the City of Queretaro in 1916-1917. The Mexican Constitution stands by the European model and is composed of 136 articles. Nevertheless that its text has been modified more than 400 times since its execution on February 5th, 1917, the original structure of his fundamental document continues to be in force today.

The current constitutional document emerged from the most violent revolutionary movement that overrun that country in the early 20th century. It was crafted in response to the popular and nationalistic demands thickly advanced by laborers, peasants, and indigenous peoples against the oppression and harsh working conditions imposed by a powerful minority of landlords, merchants and factory owners.

Characterized as the very first revolutionary social movement of the 20th century, the “Revolución Mexicana” of 1910 provided the substance for numerous popular and social demands that found their way into the language of the Constitution of 1917.