ABA co-publishes a timely guide to pressing issues in Mexico's legal system

The American Bar Association Section of International Law and Carolina Academic Press have released a timely, practical and thought-provoking book on how Mexico’s legal system is responding to key challenges to the rule of law.

“Mexico and Its Legal System: Lawyers’ Essays on the Continuing Evolution” presents nine essays exploring how Mexican law is evolving to address critical issues in the development of the country’s legal system. Some of the issues addressed include federalism, civil procedure, dispute resolution, immigration, foreign investment and land ownership. In addition, the book tackles how the law approaches gender equality, assures fair and transparent elections and shapes the role of the legal profession.

The book’s co-editors, Yurixhi Gallardo and Patrick Del Duca, have produced insight into the role of the legal system in Mexican society that is simultaneously concrete and practice-oriented for lawyers and business people. The book, published in English, speaks broadly to the fundamental rule of law and law reform aspirations of lawyers generally, while affording insights relevant to current political and economic developments on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border.

The book lays a solid foundation for anyone seeking to understand the workings of Mexican law and is provocative reading, no matter how sophisticated and versed in the law readers may be.

“Each essay drills into its subject matter with an immensely practical understanding of how the law currently works and how it might be made to work better,” said Del Duca. “As just one example, the chapters on the uniquely Mexican procedural concept of “amparo” and implementation of mandatory alternative dispute resolution in Mexican civil litigation are the most insightful of which I am aware, in any language, into these key elements of the functioning of Mexico’s legal system.”

Gallardo is professor of the School of Law at Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, where she teaches in the areas of political theory and professional ethics. She received her Ph.D. from the Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, having earned master’s degrees in Humanistic Studies from the Universidad Abat Oliba CEU, Barcelona, and in History of Thought from Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City campus. She completed a specialization in Anthropology and Ethics at Universidad Panamericana, Guadalajara, where she also earned her law degree.

Del Duca, a partner at Zuber Lawler & Del Duca LLP in Los Angeles, is the author of “Choosing the Language of Transnational Deals: Practicalities, Policy and Law Reform.” He has a J.D. from Harvard Law School, earned a laurea in giurisprudenza from the Università di Bologna law faculty, and received his Ph.D. in law from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.