The law of Mexico is based upon the

Constitution of Mexico The Constitution of Mexico, formally the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States ( es, Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in th ...

and follows the civil law tradition.

Sources

The hierarchy of sources of law can be viewed as the Constitution, legislation, regulations, and then custom. Alternatively, the hierarchy can be viewed as the Constitution, treaties, statutes, codes, doctrine, custom, and then general principles of law.

Federal Constitution

The

is the fundamental law ().

Legislation

The

Mexican Congress The Congress of the Union ( es, Congreso de la Unión, ), formally known as the General Congress of the United Mexican States (''Congreso General de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos''), is the legislature of the federal government of Mexico cons ...

creates

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

in the form of regulatory laws () that implement the Constitution, organic acts () that implement the organization, powers, and functions of governmental agencies, and ordinary laws (). They are published in the

Official Journal of the Federation The (DOF; translated variously as the ''Official Journal of the Federation'' or else as ''Official Gazette of the Federation''), published daily by the government of Mexico, is the main official government publication in Mexico. It was founde ...

(, DOF).

Regulations

The

President of Mexico The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the ...

creates regulations () for the purpose of interpreting, clarifying, expanding or supplementing the language of legislative enactments. They are published in the

(, DOF).

Case law

Mexico utilizes a form of . The decisions of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

are binding on lower courts as only upon five consecutive and uninterrupted decisions () approved by at least eight justices when in plenary sessions () or by at least four justices when in chambers. The decisions of the Collegiate Circuit Courts are provided they are based upon five consecutive and uninterrupted decisions approved by unanimity of votes of the magistrates who compose each collegiate court. Decisions are distilled into theses (), of which the are binding (), the are not binding, and the are theses of note which are not binding but have persuasive value. Such decisions are published in the Federal Judicial Weekly () through its gazette (). Complete decisions are rarely published in the , though it is not unheard of if the Supreme Court, a collegiate circuit court, or the General Coordinator of Compilation and Systematization of Theses () deems they should be published; instead, it mainly includes or . Moreover, theses that have acquired the character of binding criteria () are published every year in an appendix to the . In some jurisdictions, there may also exist executive

administrative court An administrative court is a type of court specializing in administrative law, particularly disputes concerning the exercise of public power. Their role is to ascertain that official acts are consistent with the law. Such courts are considered s ...

s, which are not bound by these .

Doctrine

The civil law tradition was developed by, and as such the "authorities" were and continue to be,

legal scholars A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and not judges and lawyers as in the common law tradition. The legal treatises produced by these scholars are called doctrine (), and are used much in the same way case law is used in the common law tradition. However, these scholarly contributions do not carry the force of law and are not legally binding.

Custom

Mexican law recognizes

custom Custom, customary, or consuetudinary may refer to: Traditions, laws, and religion * Convention (norm), a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted rules, norms, standards or criteria, often taking the form of a custom * Norm (social), a r ...

, the rules, principles, and norms formed through a gradual but uniform passage of time, but only when this recognition is based upon an explicit provision of the applicable law allowing for such recognition.

General principles of law

"General principles of law", expressly cited by Article 14 of the Constitution, have not been expressly defined by legislation, but

legal maxim A legal maxim is an established principle or proposition of law, and a species of aphorism and general maxim. The word is apparently a variant of the Latin , but this latter word is not found in extant texts of Roman law with any denotation exac ...

s such as equity, good faith, , the

right of self-defense The right of self-defense (also called, when it applies to the defense of another, alter ego defense, defense of others, defense of a third person) is the right for people to use reasonable or defensive force, for the purpose of defending one' ...

, and tend to be cited by legal scholars.

State constitutions and law

Each of Mexico's 31 states and Mexico City has its own constitution, known as a state or local constitution ( or ). Each state's or Mexico City's laws and regulations are published in their respective Official State Gazettes (). At the state and local level, publication of complete binding court opinions (versus ) is extremely limited or simply nonexistent.

Jurisprudence

The civil law tradition (as developed by the legal scholars, i.e. doctrine) tends to treat the divisions of law in normative terms. There are two major areas of law: private law, concerning the relationships between individuals, and public law, concerning the relationships between individuals and the government. The civil code is the most important embodiment of law, based on

Roman law Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the '' Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor Ju ...

. Other topics include those related to

philosophy of law Philosophy of law is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of law and law's relationship to other systems of norms, especially ethics and political philosophy. It asks questions like "What is law?", "What are the criteria for legal val ...

, including the major schools of thought and the major disagreements; objective law and subjective rights; substantive law and procedural law; statutory law and customary law; federal law, state law and municipal law; and national law, international law and community law.

Public law

Mexico's major codes regarding public law are the Federal Criminal Code (the

criminal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

) and the National Criminal Procedure Code (the code of criminal procedure). Other codes of importance include the Fiscal Code () (

tax law Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...

) and the Federal Labor Law () ( Mexican labor law).

Private law

Mexico's major codes regarding private law are the Federal Civil Code (the civil code), Federal Commercial Code (the commercial code), and the Federal Civil Procedure Code (the

code of civil procedure Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits (as opposed to procedures in criminal law matters). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced; what ki ...

References

* *

External links

Sources

containing all laws, treaties, regulations, decrees, and notices of federal, state, municipal, and borough governments, from the

Secretariat of the Interior The Mexican Secretariat for Home Affairs ( es, Secretaría de Gobernación, SEGOB, lit=Secretariat for Governance) is the public department concerned with the country's domestic affairs, the presenting of the president's bills to Congress, their ...

Federal laws in force
from the Chamber of Deputies
Federal regulations in force
from the Chamber of Deputies

from the Chamber of Deputies
Official Journal of the Federation
from the Secretariat of the Interior
Federal Judicial Weekly
from the

State law web links
from the Chamber of Deputies {{Authority control

Sources

Federal Constitution

Legislation

Regulations

Case law

Doctrine

Custom

General principles of law

State constitutions and law

Jurisprudence

Public law

Private law

See also

Topics

Other

References

External links

Sources