Justice in Mexico: The Drug War's Most Important Change That Nobody Noticed Viridiana Rios, PhD - Kennedy School Review
go to original March 29, 2014

While the emergence of civilian self-defense groups in Mexico has gained the most attention as a strategy to fight drug cartels, the most profound change in that country’s security strategy has largely passed unnoticed. Early on 2014, Mexico approved an entirely new national code of judicial procedures that will transform the way justice is conducted across the country.  This new code signifies the most fundamental change in Mexico’s judicial system since its revolution.

The code obligates states to adapt their laws in order to conduct oral trials, increase police’s investigative tasks, and reduce the use of “preventive prison” – an often criticized measure that allows authorities to imprison legally innocent citizens, sometimes for years, while they are investigated. The code imposes order on judicial procedures that state laws used to determine, thus resulting in varied quality and objectives. The days when Mexico’s police was an entirely reactive force without incentives to investigate crime seem to be coming to an end. The days when trials were conducted hidden from the public eye, thus favoring corruption, will come to an end soon too.

This change will greatly improve Mexico’s ability to provide justice to its citizens. Research has shown that rules like the ones the code will implement are fairer to defendants and reduce wrongful convictions. Furthermore, by homogenizing the processes used to judge criminals across Mexico, incentives for the strategic migration of crime to states with less efficient penal procedures will be reduced. Criminals will have fewer places to hide. Most importantly, new regulations will require that all state judicial authorities have the same training, allowing for more coordination. If qualification programs for prosecutors, public defenders and judges are the same in all states, costs of training will be reduced due to economies of scale.

Detractors’ voices argue that the new judicial code will limit Mexico’s federalism by inhibiting states from having their own judicial procedures. It will. This is, however, not one of the most important concerns we should have about this judicial change. There are three other larger issues: public outcry, money, and confusion.

Read the rest at Kennedy School Review

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