Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2019-01-24DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2019.1.13128
Jisong Jian, Abdou Chekaraou Ibrahim
{"title":"Understanding the Rise of Mexican Migration to Canada","authors":"Jisong Jian, Abdou Chekaraou Ibrahim","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2019.1.13128","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2019.1.13128","url":null,"abstract":"This article shows that the number of people seeking asylum in Canada from Mexico continues and has increased at an exponential rate. Canada has become a favorite destination for Mexican asylum seekers while Canada accepts their claims at an alarmingly low rate compared to those from other nations. We argue that the reason Mexicans choose Canada to claim refugee status is due to Canada’s long history of open immigration policies and especially its economic and temporary labor agreements. These policies give the impression to Mexicans that they are welcome in Canada. This proved to be untrue when Canada changed its immigration and refugee policies in response, specifically, to the overwhelming number of Mexican refugee claims.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2019-01-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44122621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2018-06-21DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12515
M. Weisbrot, L. Merling, V. Mello, Stéphane Lefebvre, Joseph Sammut
{"title":"Did Nafta Help Mexico? An Update After 23 Years","authors":"M. Weisbrot, L. Merling, V. Mello, Stéphane Lefebvre, Joseph Sammut","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12515","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12515","url":null,"abstract":"This note compares the performance of the Mexican economy with that of the rest of the region over 23 years, since NAFTA took effect, based on the available economic and social indicators. Among the results, it finds that Mexico ranks 15th out of 20 Latin American countries in growth of real GDP per person, the most basic economic measure of living standards; Mexico’s poverty rate in 2014 was higher than the poverty rate of 1994; and real wages (inflation-adjusted) were almost the same in 2014 as in 1994. It also notes that if NAFTA had been successful in restoring Mexico’s pre-1980 growth rate —when developmentalist economic policies were the norm— Mexico today would be a high-income country, with income per person comparable to Western European countries. If not for Mexico’s long-term economic failure, including the 23 years since NAFTA, it is unlikely that immigration from Mexico would have become a major political issue in the United States, since relatively few Mexicans would seek to cross the border.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12515","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42772459","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2018-06-21DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12509
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Arthur Sanders Montandon
{"title":"Reforming Mexico’s Anti-Trafficking in Persons Legislation","authors":"Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Arthur Sanders Montandon","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12509","url":null,"abstract":"In the past few years, Mexico has taken a number of measures to further prevention, protection, and prosecution of trafficking in persons. The country’s government has signed international anti-trafficking conventions and has taken some aspects of widely accepted international definitions of this crime as a reference when drafting its anti-trafficking legislation. However, Mexican lawmakers have interpreted human trafficking in their own terms. Mexico’s current anti-trafficking legislation is based on a quite broad definition of trafficking in persons and shows serious limitations that have led to the misidentification of victims and traffickers, as well as to re-victimization. This adds to Mexico’s weak rule of law, corruption, and the involvement of interest groups with particular agendas/ideologies that have obstructed reform. The present analysis demonstrates the imperative necessity to modify the current anti-trafficking legislation in Mexico and provides some basic suggestions for this much-needed reform.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48030952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2018-06-21DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12512
Francisco Martinez Cruz
{"title":"The Right to Self-Determination of Peoples: Notes on its Compatibility With Three Models of Global Order","authors":"Francisco Martinez Cruz","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12512","url":null,"abstract":"The right to self-determination has become an increasing legitimate demand of peoples seeking recognition and autonomy. In the beginning, this right was conceived in favor of peoples that depended on colonial powers, but today it has become a claim of any people that considers itself a people, as in the case of indigenous peoples or non-colonized peoples. This concept of the right to self-determination seems to be the path leading to a more heterogeneous world. Conversely, the rise of various problems that affect us globally seems to require the creation of international political institutions capable of solving these problems, which would most likely lead us toward a more homogeneous global order. Although both tendencies have powerful reasons that make them irreversible, it is not clear how they can co-exist. In this article, the author discusses whether a broad notion of the right to self-determination is compatible with three different models of global order proposed by Thomas Christiano, Rafael Domingo, and James Bohman, respectively.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43135189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2018-06-21DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12511
G. Ferreyra
{"title":"Unpacking the Mexican Federal Judiciary: An Inner Look at the Ethos of the Judicial Branch","authors":"G. Ferreyra","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12511","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.1.12511","url":null,"abstract":"Based on 45 interviews conducted in 6 different jurisdictions in Mexico, this article presents a close examination of the distinctive attributes and practices that characterize the Mexican Federal Judiciary (Poder Judicial Federal). Interviewees included typists, clerks and court clerks, judges, and justices, as well as scholars and experts with an in-depth knowledge of this institution. From an insider perspective, the article sheds light on idiosyncrasies, customs, and organizational patterns that are not well known outside the MFJ, such as its strong hierarchical structure, the nature of the work done, employee salaries, the practices of legalism, the risks of drug-related trials, and structural gender inequalities. It also discusses phenomena like influence peddling, cronyism, and nepotism, all of which are widely practiced within the MFJ but kept undisclosed. These practices do not necessarily have a negative connotation within the federal judiciary because they have become normalized due to their widespread use. In fact, the notion of corruption is somehow ambiguous for many judicial employees. Despite all this, the MFJ has become a more professionalized branch where the vast majority of employees performed their job competently and efficiently.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2018-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43070738","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11891
Carla Sbert Carlsson
{"title":"Amparos Filed by Indigenous Communities Against Mining Concessions in Mexico: Implications for a Shift in Ecological Law","authors":"Carla Sbert Carlsson","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11891","url":null,"abstract":"Four indigenous communities in Mexico have initiated amparos seeking constitutional protection against mining concessions that have allegedly violated their constitutional rights. In addition to their significant implications for indigenous rights in Mexico, these amparos are part of a growing reaction against laws that prioritize mining interests over community land uses and ecological values. This article explores the relationship of these cases with a new legal paradigm that is emerging in response to the inability of environmental law to adequately address the deepening ecological crisis: ecological law. From an ecological law perspective, these amparos are of interest because of the possibility for courts to give priority to indigenous values ascribing spiritual, ecological and relational meanings to the land and its resources, over economic interests seeking to exploit the land and resources for commercial gain without regard to ecological limits. The article introduces a “lens of ecological law” conceived to understand the nature of the required shift from the current law to ecological law, and then examines the amparo filed by the community of San Miguel del Progreso–Juba Wajiin from this standpoint. The analysis shows that the provisions of the Mining Law challenged by the amparo pose serious obstacles for ecological law (prioritizing mining over any other land use), and it points to certain synergies between indigenous rights and ecological law. While the SCJN did not examine the merits of the amparo because the concessions had been withdrawn, the amparo offers insights into the challenges facing a shift away from the current legal paradigm.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"3-26"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41756127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11895
Laura Nieto Sanabria
{"title":"The Subalternization of a Progressive Legal Project: The Rights of Nature in Ecuador","authors":"Laura Nieto Sanabria","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11895","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11895","url":null,"abstract":"In this note, the author uses the categories of subalternity and hegemony, proposed by Antonio Gramsci, in order to analyze the political process that emerged with the proclamation of the Rights of Nature in the Constitution of Montecristi, the new Constitution of Ecuador that came into existence in 2008. Out of the understanding that every legislative process arises from a political project within a historical bloc with specific interactions between forces, the Alianza Pais political project has searched for new ways of approaching the human-nature relationship through the “Revolucion Ciudadana” in order to avoid the exploitation and commercialization of nature. Nonetheless, the Rights of Nature initiative has received much criticism from many fields: 1) the false distinction between nature and humanity; 2) the change from an obligation to take care of nature to rights of nature as a neoliberal danger; 3) the supposed liberation of nature within liberal market thinking. For that matter, the Rights of Nature can be understood as a political project that has been subalternized by the hegemonic political project within ecological thinking that goes hand-inhand with neoliberal politics, the so-called Green Economy. This hegemonic project in the ecological field is working towards the continuance of the exploitation and commercialization of nature and has become more powerful than the Rights of Nature initiative by using it to give entrance to green neoliberal projects in Ecuador.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"117-138"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42265717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11893
Lucas Martínez-Villalba
{"title":"The Application of Blank Criminal Law and the Principle of Legality: The Guatemalan Example","authors":"Lucas Martínez-Villalba","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11893","url":null,"abstract":"The following article aims to assess the applicability of “blank criminal laws” under positive legal systems, as well as the threat it represents for the nullum crimen sine lege principle. It discusses the approaches to this concept taken by different legal systems in Latin America, particularly in Guatemala, where this technique was recently used to include in a flagship sentence several Conventions in which the State is involved but which are not fully transcribed into the corresponding codes. “Blank criminal laws” are understood as incomplete laws that only establish a penalty, leaving it to another judicial rule the broader definition, and analysis. The article compares the application of such laws in different Latin American countries, and how each country addresses the possible collision with the principle of legality.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"67-88"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49563304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11894
Rosa Haydee Castro Peña
{"title":"Understanding NAFTA’s ISDS: A Challenge for Mexican Attorneys","authors":"Rosa Haydee Castro Peña","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11894","url":null,"abstract":"In the context of the 20th anniversary of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), this article will analyze its Chapter XI: Investor- State Dispute Settlement. Chapter XI embodies the investor’s real and practical experience under NAFTA rules. An examination of the historical record demonstrates that Mexican lawyers have been passive participants in defending investors’ rights. On the other side of the coin, Mexican investors have not been active participants in NAFTA’s Chapter XI, in contrast to Canadian and US investors. Finally, Mexico’s experience in international arbitration has not always been negative, but Mexico has been criticized for a lack of transparency and due process for foreign investors.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"89-114"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47945965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Mexican Law ReviewPub Date : 2017-12-14DOI: 10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11896
Sergio Martín Tapia Argüello
{"title":"The Modern Possibilities of Human Rights: A Critique of the Negative Critique of Law and Rights","authors":"Sergio Martín Tapia Argüello","doi":"10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11896","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22201/IIJ.24485306E.2018.20.11896","url":null,"abstract":"This note analyzes the relations between human rights discourse and Critical Legal Theory, focusing on what can be called “the negative critique of law and rights”. Although the negative critique is important to any kind of critical approach (especially those which deal with something that seems beyond the possibilities of the critique), the note presents the multiple problems of the total rejection of human rights in contemporary societies.","PeriodicalId":41684,"journal":{"name":"Mexican Law Review","volume":"10 1","pages":"139-154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2017-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46292514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}