Politics: Under-ambitious judicial reform objectives
By far the weakest link in Mexico’s hopes for consolidating its democracy is the extent to which power is exercised in a manner far removed from an indispensable democratic prerequisite: respect for the rule of law. The country’s federal and state court systems have long been plagued by grave levels of corruption and nepotism. A 1995 attempt at professionalizing the judiciary and purging it of bad elements ultimately proved to be as half-hearted as it was ineffective. More than two decades later, a study by the Federal Judicial Council, the body charged with guaranteeing the judicial system’s administration, oversight, discipline and professional career service, uncovered the same basic problems, with many areas remaining susceptible to corruption, inefficiency and ineffectiveness.
Last February the presiding justice on the Supreme Court stepped into the breach with a sweeping reform proposal. Most surprisingly, he managed to leverage his close relationship with President López Obrador to broaden the reform’s vision and objectives, and recently get it through the Senate perfectly intact.
It contains sufficient measures for dealing with problems of nepotism and corruption and adopting a workable approach to establishing jurisprudence. It also recognizes the extent to which all 32 state court systems have been largely abandoned to their fate and chronically starved of funding despite being the part of the judicial system with which citizens are far more likely to directly interact. It also embraces the goal of improving the quality of and access to justice, which continues to be denied those without the economic means to have a fair day in court. The introduction of publicly appointed defenders is a major step in that direction.
But in many respects the reform falls far short. It is seriously flawed in its approach to reforming the inner workings of the Judicial Branch, as well as in improving the country’s system of justice broadly writ. A main deficiency is that it lacks measures for addressing multiple weaknesses that exist at the state level.
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