Mexico

Legal tradition

Mexico belongs to the civil law tradition. A federal civil-law system built on the 1917 Constitution, with codified federal law layered over 32 state legal systems. Mexico's signature remedy is the juicio de amparo, a constitutional complaint that can be brought against any act of authority and which shaped equivalent remedies across Latin America. Since the 2008 criminal-justice reform the country has run an adversarial, oral criminal process, and since the 2019 labour reform employment disputes go to real judges rather than the old tripartite conciliation boards.

How power is divided

Federal. Powers not expressly granted to the union are reserved to the 32 states (Article 124). States run their own civil, family and criminal-enforcement codes, but criminal procedure, labour and commercial law were federalised to produce single national codes.

Where law comes from

Constitution and ratified treaties

Article 1 gives human-rights treaties constitutional rank; Article 133 makes them supreme law.

Federal statutes and national codes

Includes the National Code of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Labour Act.

State constitutions and codes

Civil, family and property law is largely state law.

Jurisprudencia

Binding precedent: Supreme Court plenary rulings, and since 2021 any reasoned majority holding of the plenary or chambers.

The legal profession

A law degree plus a cédula profesional from the Education Ministry licenses practice; there is no compulsory bar examination or single mandatory bar, which distinguishes Mexico from most of the region. Notaries public are a separate, strictly limited state-appointed profession with exclusive competence over real estate and company deeds.