Judicial Review and Rights Protection in Mexico: The Limits of the 2011 Amparo Reform
The paper critically discusses the potential impact of the much-awaited 2011 Mexican constitutional reform on the amparo writ, in connection with other changes the Mexican constitutional system has recently undergone. It reaches pretty pessimistic conclusions, arguing that much more should have been done to put amparo in conditions to operate effectively in terms of rights protection. The paper includes a historic overview that describes the structure of the writ and identifies some of the causes behind its current procedural complexity. And it argues that, although the reform improves to some degree access conditions as well as the kind of remedies the amparo judge can adopt, the changes are shy, and they do not significantly diminish an utterly unacceptable degree of procedural complexity. Regulatory obscurity and the impossibility of reasonably foreseeing what the filing of an amparo will end up delivering in terms of rights protection will continue to set significant barriers and keep amparo away from ordinary citizens.
La constitución del estado constitucional
No supone ninguna novedad afirmar que el constitucionalismo que se ha desarrollado a partir de la segunda guerra mundial ha supuesto (y supone) un cambio de paradigma en la cultura juridica. Este cambio se ha afirmado mas o menos lentamente, pero en los ultimos anos se ha mostrado de manera manifiesta. En estos momentos es ya un lugar comun hablar del "Estado constitucional" como algo diferente del "Estado de Derecho" y referirse a los cambios que esta transicion supone en la concepcion del Derecho y del metodo juridico. Si el modelo del Estado de Derecho (o Estado legal de Derecho) gravita en torno a la idea de imperio de la ley, el modelo del Estado constitucional (o Estado Constitucional de Derecho) gravita en torno al caracter normativo (regulativo) de la Constitucion ("la Constitucion como norma juridica"). Josep Aguilo nos presenta las implicaciones de estos cambios en la concepcion actual del constitucionalismo y tambien las transformaciones que suscita esta concepcion en la propia teoria del derecho
Mentally disordered offenders and the law: Research update on the insanity defense, 2004-2019.
The insanity defense is among the most controversial legal constructs that has attracted the attention of scholars, practitioners and policy makers. Here, we conducted a systematic review of the literature spanning 2004 to 2019 that produced 58 studies of insanity defense research. Findings are organized according to: (1) assessments and assessment-related issues, (2) juror decision-making in defense trials, (3) characteristics of insanity acquittees, (4) release recommendations for insanity acquittees, (5) revocation of conditional release status of insanity acquittees, and (6) additional areas of insanity defense research. Implications of the research for the insanity defense and cognate legal issues are proffered.