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
How Does Law Matter
The question of how law matters has long been fundamental to the law and society field. Social science scholarship has repeatedly demonstrated that law matters less, or differently, than those who study only legal doctrine would have us believe. Yet research in this field depends on a belief in the relevance of law, no matter how often gaps are identified. The essays in this collection show how law is relevant in both an instrumental and a constitutive sense, as a tool to accomplish particular purposes and as an important force in shaping the everyday worlds in which we live. Essays examine these issues by focusing on legal consciousness, the body, discrimination, and colonialism as well as on more traditional legal concerns such as juries and criminal justice.