Participación en conferencias

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Center for Strategic and International Studies

Justice Reform in Mexico

July 16, 2004

Morning session > Panel de participación de Arturo Arango

  The CSIS Mexico Project and the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) co-sponsored a day-long interactive working group session on justice reform in Mexico. This CSIS-USMEX working group engaged a distinguished group of experts on justice reform in Mexico in an open dialogue to anticipate, and theoretically inform, the debate over the Fox administration's sweeping reform proposal for overhauling Mexico's justice system. Such reforms are essential not only to the well being of Mexico's citizens, but also for the continued consolidation of Mexican democracy. Mexico's Deputy Attorney General, Alejandro Ramos, was the keynote speaker of the event, which was co-chaired by Armand Peschard-Sverdrup of CSIS and David Shirk of UCSD.
 See the agenda >
 


 

CONFERENCE REPORT
 MAY 15 - 17, 2003
COMPILED BY DR. WAYNE A. CORNELIUS AND DR. DAVID A. SHIRK

On May 15-17, 2003, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego hosted a conference on justice reform in Mexico. The conference presented the findings of original academic research and working group activities from the Center’s “Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico,” a multi-institution, interdisciplinary initiative involving over 50 scholars from the United States and Mexico. The Project promotes analysis and networking among scholars, practitioners, and NGO activists to promote structural reforms and improved public policies for the rule of law and administration of justice in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican borderlands.

The conference brought together project participants with high-level policy makers from Mexico, and attracted an audience of 90 scholars, law enforcement officers, legal experts, and graduate and undergraduate students. The conference included plenary remarks from special guests Dr. John Bailey from the Center of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University, Mexican Secretary of Public Security Alejandro Gertz Manero, Mexican Sub-Prosecutor General Alejandro Ramos, Mexican Border Commissioner Ernesto Ruffo Appel, and Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon.

The project and this conference illustrated the critical importance of a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to justice sector reform, due to the complex nature of legal systems and the problems the confront. There is no single “cure-all” solution to resolving Mexico’s rule of law challenges. It is therefore impossible to focus solely on any one part of the equation –police reform, legal reform, prison reform, or increasing citizen access to the justice system– at the expense of another. Across the board, there is a need for improved information systems, training programs, bureaucratic professionalization (including civil service protections), and mechanisms to ensure accountability. The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies therefore continues to advocate broad-based inter-institutional collaboration, policy-oriented research, and public dialogue to identify targets of opportunity for improving Mexico’s justice system.

 


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