Since 2008, Mexico’s criminal justice system has been transitioning from an inquisitorial to an accusatorial model, and from a writing-based approach to one that uses oral trials featuring live witness testimony and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Since 2010, ABA ROLI has worked with Mexican law schools to prepare the next generation of Mexican attorneys for practice in the accusatorial trial context. Even though Mexico, as of June 18, 2016, has officially adopted an accusatorial criminal justice system, there remains critical weaknesses across law school teaching methods, as noted in the ABA ROLI-produced Mexico Legal Education Reform Index assessment and the subsequent Mexico Guide for Reform of the Legal Profession and Legal Education. In 2020, ABA ROLI engaged law schools from 24 different states in Mexico and hosted the largest Mock Trial and Restorative Justice Competitions in the country.
Mexico Background
Additionally, ABA ROLI has been working with labor justice institutions in Mexico to enhance the protection of labor rights in the country since 2023. In 2019, Mexico also enacted legislation to implement the constitutional reform of 2017 which transformed the labor justice system by transferring the authority to adjudicate labor disputes from the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CABs) to new labor courts that now depend on the judicial branch. This change, along with several others introduced by the labor law reform, has broadened the mandate of labor justice institutions and requires a massive training effort for the staff of the labor justice institutions so that their members can apply the new labor law provisions effectively. ABA ROLI provides these labor justice institutions with the technical capacity needed to enhance the protection of workers’ rights, improve legal advice and representation provided to workers, and increase the knowledge and skills of labor justice officials.