>> Gustavo Guerra: Welcome to the
Law Library of Congress's Foreign
and Comparative Law Webinar
series. I'm Gustavo Guerra,
Foreign Law Specialist with the
Library of Congress and the
[unclear] Legal Research 
Directorate. Today, I will
present a brief overview of 
online sources where you can
find Mexican Law. Some of these
sources are maintained by the
Mexican government. Others are
made available by private
institutions. And I will also
mention some publications in
print available in our
collection. In the
first part of this webinar, I
will briefly discuss the main
features of Mexico's system of
government and its legal system
as well. In the interest of
time, I will mention just the
key features of the Mexican
legal system in a way that
allows me to explain the
research sources that I will
discuss during the presentation.
Then I will cover some online
primary sources maintained by
the Mexican Government,
particularly selected sources 
available on the websites of the
Mexican Congress and the
judicial branch. During the
presentation, I will do some
live demonstrations so you can
see how the search functions and
some of these resources work and
will suggest relevant research
sources along the way as well.
Finally, I will mention some
research resources made
available by rivate institutions
and will describe some
publications available in our
collection. I will cover sources
available in English and
Spanish. And please note that
these sources, particularly
those maintained by private
institutions, are helpful for
general information purposes.
However, they may not be
entirely up to date. And thus, I
cannot confirm that they are. 
100% accurate. So please be
aware that the information in
this presentation is provided as
a reference service and that its
legal advice.
Let's begin. By way of 
introduction I would like to
point out that Mexico is a
federal republic, whose national
government is composed by the
executive, legislative, and
judicial branches. The country
is an electoral democracy and
has a presidential system of
government. It is formed by 31
states and Mexico City, which is
the nation's capital, that are
free and sovereign with respect
to the respective territories b
ut united in a federation is
provided by the Mexican
constitution. The powers that
are not expressly Granted by it
to federal authorities are
reserved for the authorities of
the Mexican states. Thus, states
and Mexico City can enact laws
on local matters. The National
Congress, formerly the House of
Representatives and the Senate,
have exclusive authority over
matters of national interest,
including defense, foreign
relations, citizenship, and
national security.
Both the federal government and
the state governments have
executive, legislative and
judicial branches. I will focus
on the federal legal system in
this presentation. However, I
will mention an online source
that you can use in order to
access state government
websites, which is a good
starting point for exploring 
online sources providing the
role of Mexican states. In the
federal government the executive
power is vested in the president
of the nation and legislative
power in a bicameral congress
and the judicial power in the
federal Judicial branch vested
in the Supreme Court and lower
courts at the appellate and
first instance level-- or
regional jurisdiction.
Mexico's legal system follows
the civil law tradition, which
relies mainly on statutory loan.
Accordingly.
The Mexican constitution
provides that the laws passed by
the National Congress, the
treaties negotiated by the
President and approved by the
Senate and the Constitution
itself are the supreme law of 
the country. Thus, this
presentation's main focus is on
federal statutory law. With
respect to court rulings, please
note the cases adjudicated by
the Supreme Court and the
Federal Court of Appeals are
binding on lower courts provided
that applicable requirements
are met. Specifically cases of
the Supreme Court are binding
when they are adjudicated by a
majority of eight
votes--rendered by eight of the
11 justices that are members of
the court. Or when the Justices
address and settle contradictory
rulings issued by two courts of
appeals. Rulings issued by
Federal Courts of Appeals are 
binding on five different cases
on the same issue are resolved
in the same manner by such
courts. At this point.
And since we just reviewed some
relevant provisions of
constitutional law, I would like
to mention a couple of little
articles in English available
online that address certain
issues of Mexican constitutional
law that may be of interest to
some of you. The first article
is titled The Influence of the
Constitution of the United 
States on the Mexican
Constitution of 1917, which is
the one that is in force today.
It was published in 2017 by Toni
Jaeger-Fine, who at the time was
Assistant Dean at Fordham Law
School in New York City. And it
is available from the website of
Mexico's National Autonomous
University, better known in
Mexico as UNAM. This essay is a
comparative study that examines
the areas of influence of US
constitutional law and the
Mexican constitution, and also
analyses the latter's history 
and characteristics. The author
explains that both systems
follow principles of federalism
and a national government based
on separation of powers in
checks and balances. But the
implementation of these
doctrines are different.
Historically, for example,
Mexico's presidency and its 
Federal government have been
much more powerful vis-a-vis 
states than the presidency and
federal government in the United
States. Overall, it is an
interesting and informative
article. For those of you who
know the main principles of the
US Constitution alone, this
article could be helpful to
understand the history nd
important aspects of Mexico's
constitution and thus of the
nation's legal system. The
second article shown on this
slide was written by Pedro
Villareal, a researcher with the
Max Planck Institute For
Comparative Public and
International Law in Germany. It
provides an analysis of the
measures taken by Mexico in
order to address the COVID 19
pandemic, as provided by the
relevant constitutional
framework on health
emergencies. It also summarizes
the actions taken by the three
branches of the Federal
government to manage the public
health system during the first
year of the pandemic. I'm
mentioning this article here
because it includes an analysis
of the constitutional framework
that governs health emergencies
in Mexico. And because legal
responses to COVID 19 have been
a recurring topic for us in the
last couple of years. I assume
they may have been for some
years as well. Next, I will
provide
a brief explanation of a very
helpful and user-friendly online
source and Mexican statutory 
law, which is available on the
website of Mexico's House of
Representatives. The hyperlink
that provides access to this
site is shown on this line.
I included a screenshot of the
website. We are about to visit
on this slide for reference
purposes.
In order to explain the features
of this website, I will do a
live demonstration of its 
content. Now I will share my
screen to access the website.
Unfortunately,
this website that you can see in
your screen now is available
only in Spanish, which is a
general rule. In Mexico when it
comes to official websites.
There are some Mexican
Government websites that include
limited sections in English. As
I will explain in a few minutes
when I show you a section in
English available on the website
of Mexico's federal judicial
branch that summarizes certain
prominent cases adjudicated by
the Supreme Court. However, the
site that we're looking at right
now does not have a section in
English. I should mention that
even tThough this source on
statutory law is available in
Spanish only.
The translation tools in Google 
Chrome, Microsoft Edge browsers
work decently on it. And I say
decently because the quality of
that translation is not 100% 
accurate. But it is a tool that
allows non-bilingual users to
have a general idea. As to the
content of the website. Now I
will do a live demonstration of
the website in Spanish and I
will translate as I go. So you
can see how the search function,
some of these resource work. The
initial web page provides a list
of the current versions of more
than 300 federal statutes.
At the top of the list, we see
the link that provides access to
the Constitution, which has many
features for researchers. If you
click on the title of the
constitution, a new web page is
displayed. Well here it is.
It provides some of the
legislative history of the
constitution, the original 
version of the Constitution as
enacted in 1917.
Right here.
And, another link to access
amendments in chronological
order, including a summary of
each of them right here.
Click here. And you can see here
a list of the amendments.
As you can see in this webpage. 
There are about 251 amendments
to the Constitution listed in
this site with a very brief
description of each one of them
here. Some show here.
Now I will go back tor the
initial web page.
There are similar features
available for most of the
statutes and codes listed here.
As we can see by clicking on the
link corresponding to the
commerce code.
[unclear] See. The original
publication of the code. It's
available as well as the list of
amendments in a
brief summary of what the 
Amendment is about.
Now go back to the initial page.
And next I will visit a
different section of the site.
It is titled m
arco, which I can translate as
framework as it provides access
to another section that lists
the legal framework that governs
the Mexican Congress, including
relevant statutes, regulations
and manuals.
Click here. And as you can see.
At the top of this section, we
still have the Constitution but
then we have the law that 
governs the Mexican Congress
plus these regulations.
Well, I'll go back again to the
original section.
And another section of this site
list repealed federal statutes
right here, which can be helpful
if you need to do research on
older laws that are no longer
in force. It is here on the
link that says abrogadas, which
can be translated as repeal.
I'll click on it. And again, it 
gives us the list of
repealed statutes.
I'll go back to the initial
page. In the next section that
I will mention is titled
discargas or
downloads in English, which is a
section where you can download
the current text of the
Constitution and federal
statutes as well as the statutes
repealed since 2004. I
haven't downloaded this product
in a while, but a few years ago
I did. And back then I recall
that the downloaded version had
some nice looking search
features like richer content in
terms of visual presentation. I
assume that something similar
could be available for those of
you who wish to download this
content. Next, there is a
section that allows researchers
to access regulations under
federal standards. Click on it.
And the regulations, of course, 
provide more detailed rules than
the broader guidelines provided
by statutes, which frequently
leave such details to the
executive branch, as it is in
charge of implementing
statutes, just as it happens in
the United States. Going back.
Once again. And another section
of this website has a list of
links to official sources
maintained by all 31 Mexican
states and Mexico City. Here, 
which include the respective
statutory laws.
I just click on the link-- I
will click on the link
corresponding to Mexico City
right here.
And that will take us to the
website of his legislative
assembly. Just this.
An extra click we reach a list
of statutory laws enforced in
Mexico City. So I will go back
once again.
Close Mexico City. And it's a
lot of information,
but the nice thing about this
source is that it is in one
single web page in a clean and
easy interface, which makes it
very accessible. Now I will go
back
to our
presentation.
It's just a screenshot of the
website we just visited
for reference purposes. And
next, I will show you a website
maintained by Mexico's Supreme 
Court that provides information
on recent cases adjudicated by
the court translated into
English, the hyperlink that
provides access to this site is
displayed on this slide.
Now I will share my screen to access
the website directly in Order to
explain the features of this
source.
Here it is.
This is a very interesting
source for a number of reasons.
First, of course, it is
available in English, which as I
mentioned before, is rare in
government websites. And second,
the website provides a
selection of prominent cases
adjudicated in recent years by
Mexico's Supreme Court in a wide
variety of legal 
fields--including criminal law,
domestic relations.
environmental law, etc..
The common denominator of all of
these rulings seems to be the
fact that all of them appear to
have been adjudicated on the
basis of applicable human rights
as provided by Mexican Law. In
fact, the website indicates that
the Human Rights Division of the
court, in collaboration with the
United States Embassy in Mexico,
prepared these summaries of
prominent decisions in which
relevant criteria regarding 
human rights have been
developed. Each summary has a
cover page where the case is
identified, and it also has a
summary where the facts are
present concisely, the topic 
discussed by the court, and what
was resolved. And the legal
reasoning that substantiates its
decision. These rulings were
translated into English in
order to publicize them
internationally, aAccording to
the court's website. Now I will 
return to the PowerPoint slides
to show you a couple of cases
that illustrate the type of
rulings available on this
website.
It's an example of a ruling 
translated into English by the
Supreme Court on an issue of
evidence obtained without
judicial authorisation. I
provided the link to the case in
its entirety for reference
purposes. And now we'll show you
the screen displaying the case 
while I summarize its main
points.
So, having a little bit of trouble
accessing--
here it is.
So in this case, the issue was
whether the prosecution needs
judicial authorization in order
to get access to the files of a
cell phone owned by a suspect 
detained due to the commission
of a crime. The court held that
under Article 16 of the
constitution, the interception 
of private communication
requires the authorization of
judicial authorities, which can
be obtained, of course, at the
request of the prosecution.
Specifically, all forms of
communication must be protected
by the fundamental right to the
inviolability of private
communications, which includes
all the information stored on a
mobile phone such as text images
or videos.
Here it is again. The court held
that if the prosecution or law
enforcement authorities realize
that a detainee who is a suspect
in the commission of a crime is
carrying a cell phone. Those
authorities may seize the phone
and request the judicial
authority to issue a warrant to
access the data stored in the
phone. These must be done in
order to comply with the
prohibition against accessing
the private communications of
citizens without a warrant is
provided by Mexico's
constitution. Accordingly, if
private files in a cell phone
are obtained without
authorization, any evidence
extracted or derived from the
cell phone is inadmissible. And
criminal court proceedings.
Go back to the slides to show
you a second example of the
[unclear] here it is. And here I
provide another example
translated by the court and the
respective links for reference,
and again, I'll show you a
screen explaining this case
while I summarize its points.
I'm having trouble accessing the 
window.
So well this case addressed the
issue of same sex marriage.
Specifically, a same sex couple
tried to obtain a marriage
license in the state of Oaxaca 
in 2012.
At that time Oaxaca statutory law.
 Oops. Sorry.
Close that [unclear] there.
I was saying, Oaxaca statutory 
law at that time, defined
marriage as a union between a
man and a woman. So the request
for a marriage license was
denied by state authorities. And
I'm sorry, I keep clicking on 
the right button--
on the wrong button.
In-- a couple that was denied the
marriage license filed a lawsuit
in federal court. And they argued
that the prohibition of
marriages of same sex couples
was unconstitutional on equality
and non-discrimination grounds.
The district court agreed with
the couple and ordered Oaxaca 
authorities to marry the
petitioners. Well, Oaxaca 
authorities appealed the
ruling, and the case made its
way to the Supreme Court, which
confirmed the ruling allowing
the couple to marry. On equality
and non-discrimination rights.
This is a very brief summary of
the case, as a recent report was
very detailed and technical.
However, the fact that these
rulings were available in
English and presented in an
abbreviated form makes them
relatively easy to read. Let's
scroll down just a bit, This is
to show you the different
sections of the translation with
the background, the issue 
holding.
With this format, which is
similar to, I guess,
publications in the United
States--the mode. This makes it,
as I mentioned, easier to read
than we were looking at the
original ruling.
So it's a little bit long, as
you can see. But again, it's
translated and I think it's an
interesting
source.  Meanwhile, I'll go back
to
[unclear]
and now that we have covered the
sources maintained by the
Mexican Government, I'd like to
share with you a number of
research guides that I believe
may be helpful while conducting
Mexican law. Every slide
describing these sources has a
corresponding link to access.
The first guide that I will
mention is titled Research Guide
to Mexican Law. It was published
in 2016, so it may not be
completely up to date, But still
it is a good source for
reference purposes. This guide
is a compilation of articles by
several members of the Latin
American Law Interest Group with
the American Association of
Libraries, and it covers all
aspects of Mexican legal
research. Its purpose is to
provide an overview of how to
conduct research on Mexican 
Law. In referencing applicable
Spanish language resources and
highlighting any available
sources in English. It is
organized into three main
sections by general resource
type, and the guide covers
primary sources, secondary
sources, and online resources.
And then more specific sources
that fall within those
categories. Thus, the section of
primary sources includes
constitutions, official
[unclear], compilations of
legislation, administrative
regulations, international
agreements, and judicial
decisions. The section on
secondary sources covers:
dictionaries, encyclopedias,
treatises, textbooks,
monographs.
online law reviews. The final
category of online resources
includes both commercial free
collections of Mexican legal
resources available on the Web.
Another source that might be useful for
your research projects is the
Mexican section of the
Chamber's Global Practice
Guides. These guides provide
expert legal commentary on the
main practice areas in
jurisdictions around the world,
According to its website, the
guides are written for in-house
lawyers to mine, so they are
very practical in style and are
business oriented. Legal fields
covered by this source include
climate change, regulation, tax
litigation.
fintech, cybersecurity, 
copyright, banking, and
environmental law. And most of
these guides are updated
through 2022 and some through
2021.
Now, I would like to mention a
couple of treatises in English
available in print. In our
collection, which could be
available to you through the
library loan system. The first
book is titled. Family and
Succession Law in Mexico and
the permalink on this slide
provides the information on this
title as registered our online 
catalog. This is a monograph
that was published in 2021 by
Kluwer Law International.
Family law in Mexico is a
recurring topic for us, which is
why I mentioned the source.
According to the publishing
company, this is a concise
analysis of essential elements
of Mexican law with regard to
family relations, marital
property in a city and states in
Mexico. It covers the legal
rules pertaining to the status
of persons, family, and
property. After a general
introduction, the book provides
an in-depth discussion on the
sources of family and
succession law and the
authorities that adjudicate and
administer the laws. Topics
discussed include: nationality,
domicile and residence, 
marriage, divorce and
cohabitation, adoption, 
guardianship, succession
arrangements, and the
acquisition and administration
of estates. The book is designed
to assist lawyers who have to
apply rules of international 
private law or otherwise handle
cases connected with Mexico. It
could also be helpful for
students and practitioners as a 
quick guide and practical
resource in the field. And it
also can be helpful to
academicians and researchers
engaged in comparative studies
by providing the necessary basic
material of family and
succession law.
The second book that I'd like to
mention due to the topic it
covers, is Cyber Law in Mexico,
also published by Kluwer
International in 2019.
Again, the permalink of this
slide provides the information
on this title as registered in
our online catalog. This book
is available in English and
covers a number of legal fields,
including: telecommunications 
law, broadcasting rules,
electronic transactions, privacy
and data protection, access to
government information, and
computer and Internet related
crime. Since the book was
published in 2019.
Its content is not entirely up
to date, but I think that it is
a very comprehensive and useful
source.
Now, I will provide some sources
on the United States- Mexico-
Canada Agreement also known as
the USMCA, in response to a
question that we received on
this topic from an attendee in
the audience some days ago.
The USMCA entered into force on
July 1st, 2020, and superseded
the North American Free Trade 
Agreement, or NAFTA, which had
been in force since 1994.
There is an official website
dedicated to many aspects of the
USMCA maintained by the Mexican 
Government on the web address
shown in this slide. This site
provides a wealth of information
in Spanish only, including
implementing regulations,
investments, guides for American
Canadian investors, reports on
trilateral meetings of the
signatory countries, and links
to a variety of Mexican
government authorities that have
implementing and enforcement
responsibilities under the
agreement. For information in
English on the USMCA.
I think that the website of the
Congressional Research Service
is a great source because they
have trade experts who
regularly publish reports on
international trade, including
the USMCA, of course. The site
is easy to navigate and I
conducted a search in it for
recent USMCA articles and found
a number of them, which I
provide on the next slide. This
CRS report is particularly
helpful on the USMCA as it
provides information on its 
background, starting with the
NAFTA Treaty, the USMCA
negotiation process, and a
summary of the topics covered by
the treaty, some of which are
new trade issues such as digital
trade.
state owned enterprises,
anti-corruption, and currency
manipulation. In 2022.
CRS has published reports on
more specific issues regarding
implementation of the treaty,
addressing its labor provisions
and rules of origin for motor
vehicles. In addition to trade
matters, CRS regularly publishes
reports on other topics
pertaining to Mexico, such as
immigration, transnational
crime, and COVID 19.
Another source that I found to 
be helpful while conducting
research on the USMCA is a
report published in GlobaLex on
this topic. GlobaLex is an
electronic legal publication
dedicated to international and
foreign law research, and it is
published by New York University
Law School. As we have been
doing during the course of this
presentation, the linked
resource is shown in this slide.
And that concludes my presentation.
Now...
We can see if we have some
questions that we could address.
Someone asked, that, she's 
asking that, she heard
that a case adjudicated by the 
Supreme Court needs to have the
same results a few times to be 
binding and whether this is
true? That's a good question. In
fact, it used to be that case up
until last year, I believe. They
recently amended the law that
governs the rulings issued by
the Supreme Court. And it used
to be like that. It was
necessary to have five decisions
on the same issue adjudicated in
the same manner, but that's no
longer the case. Now, they went
to.
.. what they call the present
system in which one single
ruling may be enough so long as,
as I mentioned earlier, it is
adjudicated by eight of the 11
justices.
But as of 2021, I don't recall
the exact date,
It's-- it's only one ruling is
necessary as long as it has the
votes-- such majority.
And let me see if there is
another.
Someone is asking whether the
links will be made available
after the meeting in the
recording session. I believe
that's the case as long as we
don't have technical
difficulties in the recording.
You should get a PDF with the
slides within 48 hours
and-- plus a link to the
recording of the session.
We go through the list of
questions.
Someone asked if it's the full 
text translated or just summary.
I believe that this attendee is
referring to the court rulings
that we mentioned before. I
believe is is a summary that is
translated. The rulings, as I 
recall, are much longer than
what we saw.
And so what the court did was--
I believe they first came up
with a summary of the case in
Spanish, and then they
translated. That's-- I believe
that's how they did it. But no,
I mean I'm almost positive it's
the case is not translated in
its entirety, It is first
summarized, and even the
summaries could be more than ten
pages, but certainly shorter
than the the original court
ruling.
Someone is asking.
How often does Mexico's Supreme
Court translate its decisions in
English? In fact, this is one of
the first times that I see the
translation. It was while I was
doing research for this
presentation, I, I was surprised
myself to see this selection of
cases because I think it's one
in 100 cases. And I think in the
past I may have seen a few cases
here and there translated, but
certainly not not in a way that
they did just recently in the
website that we mentioned. So
I'm saying clearly the court
wants to publicize its rulings 
both in English and Spanish in a
better way to reach a wider
audience internationally even.
And, No.
So they don't, to my knowledge,
they don't do it regularly. This
is this is something special. I 
hope that now that they have
this or at least had the system
in place to do it, hopefully
they start doing it more
frequently. But but no, I mean,
they don't translate rulings 
regularly.
Seeing...
Must a law student know about
the codification in the Mexican
legal system? That's a great
question. Codification is
a very useful trait of the
countries in the civil law
tradition where-- I guess this
is the case in France,
with the Napoleonic Code, 
from which the civil codes derive.
The ones that are in force in
most of Latin America. That's--
that's a very specific trait of
the civil law system
in codes, in the civil code, for
example.
I mean, it's thousands of 
Articles long and there's one in
each, each of the Mexican
states, and there's another at
the federal level. And so I
guess students just should be
aware that this is a great 
compilation of several topics on
civil law, including domestic
relations, contracts, torts,
decedent's state property.
It's all there and the, the, the
codes are very similar to one
another. They're not the same by
any means. But yeah, taken as an
example, the civil code is, um, 
students should know that that's
one of the main features of the
civil law that the effort that
the countries in the civil
tradition make in order to
codify their roles in sources
like the civil code.
And by the way, I think we we
have in our collection
translations of the Federal
Civil Code. In fact I do know.
I don't have any one, one 
handy. But there are a number of
them. If you look at our
catalog, you can see them and--
not all of them are up to date 
but there's one I think that was
published just last year. So
it's fairly recent, so for any
student that wishes to have a
better understanding of what the
civil code looks like.  It's 
right there, translated into--.
This is a source in print.
Unfortunately, I don't have it
handy, but, uh, yeah, that's
what I could say on the
codification [unclear] civil 
law  system.
Someone asked, What online legal
database is similar to Westlaw
and Lexis have in Mexico? You
know, that's a good question. To
my knowledge, nothing that comes
close, just because Westlaw and
Lexis have such rich features.
There's one database, index
probably you have that I-- I
haven't used it. We don't have a
subscription to it
unfortunately.  I believe that 
tt's, it's--I've read good
comments about that--that, the 
database but I haven't used it
myself. But I believe that
probably it could be somewhat
comparable to Lexis and Westlaw
.
But certainly other than that, 
it is--yeah.
I'm not--I'm not aware of, of of
another, of another one. Maybe
Thomson Reuters came up with a 
database to [unclear] Mexico,
but only on tax on textile 
matters.
I believe. Mostly customs and-- 
but yeah, I mean, to my
knowledge, there's nothing that 
comes close to Westlaw. And is
there a version of Westlaw in
Mexico? Well, I would say the
same thing. Not-- not one that I
am aware of.
As comprehensive and as rich
 as Westlaw is.
[unclear] is the one that comes
to mind. But I'm not I'm not
[unclear] of you, so I really
can't comment on that. Let me
see what else we can address
here.
See-- Someone is asking if I
could recommend any online
resources, preferably in
English on Mexican copyright
law. Well, one of the guides
that I mentioned, I think is the
the Chambers Guide.
Chambers and Partners Guide.
They do. I do believe that they
have a section on
copyright--almost positive.
In-- if I recall correctly, some
data through 2022.
So that's that's probably a good
source, too to look for.
See. Someone is
just pointing out that Kluwer 
Encyclopedia of International
Laws-- they also have a section
on copyright laws in foreign
countries, but it's by
subscription. So that's a that's
a good point that a colleague of
mine is making here. And...
someone is asking where and when
will these Mexican law links be
available on LOC website?
As I mentioned, I think they
publish them. Well the PDF with
the slides and the the recording
is sent to readers as an issue
within 48 hours. And I think 
eventually it is published on a
website. I don't recall exactly
the section, but I always
direct clients to law.gov.
That's easy-- this way to refer
to our website.
Once you're there, there will be
a link clearly indicating where
are the reports that we have
published in the past and that
are public and also the Web 
address as well as all the other
resources that the library has, 
which are many.
Speaker2:
And let me see.
What else?
Someone is asking if the
citizenship and religious
minorities in India webinar had
been cancelled from next
month's webinar, I was going to
really mention the information
that I have on the next webinar.
To my knowledge the next 
webinar--
>> Robert Brammer: I can answer
that.
>> Gustavo Guerra: Oh yeah.
>> Robert Brammer: Yeah. Next
next month's webinar will focus
on Pakistan and the impact of
climate change , you know, just
because of recent events. And so
they're going to reschedule the
Citizenship and Religious
Minorities in India. Webinar.
Thanks.
>> Gustavo Guerra: My colleague
Robert Brammer addressing that
question. Let's see what else we
have here...
See...
Someone asked, where can we 
see cases about indigenous
people in Mexico. I don't
recall a single source that
would provide, you know, a 
collection on indigenous law. I
seem to remember when I was
going through the, like
translated cases, I saw one or
two cases on indigenous law
in, say mention 100 cases or 
more, so, but [unclear]
scrolling through them is
relatively easy, it didn't take
more than a few minutes.
So I would suggest that-- that 
source.
I don't recall another one that
I could-- that I could suggest.
Lest's see...
See...
Someone is asking if there is a
citation method similar to the
blue book that students use in
Mexico's law schools. I
graduated from law school more
than a few years ago. So in my
time that there was no-- no such
a thing as a blue book. In fact,
when I when I got to know the
blue book, I was a little bit
shocked. I have to be honest. It
is-- it is a great system once
you learn how to use it. But I
don't recall a source that is
that-- that thick.
Let me put it away. The Supreme 
Court.
They do have guidelines, but
those are internal guidelines
for them to put together their 
rulings. Those are very detailed
guidelines. But if I recall
correctly, they don't require
that lawyers follow those
guidelines.
Those are the guidelines that
apply to the courts themselves.
So-- so unless something came up
in the last few years, I don't
recall a source in Mexico
comparable to the Blue Book.
Let's see what we have here.
My colleague Heather just
posted a link to indigenous law
portal Mexico info that is 
available from
LLMC. It's not-- it's not my
colleague.
So, but yeah, one of the 
attendees was kind enough to
share with us a source on
indigenous law.
So that's-- thank you for that.
Speaker2:
Scrolling down to the questions.
Someone is asking if the
law libraries in Mexico are open to
the public. I presume they're 
referring to law libraries in
law schools, perhaps. I think
the Supreme
Court used to have-- it's been a
while since the last time I went
to one. But they have something 
called the [Spanish].  So it's
an institution on legal
culture.
And those were actually
libraries open to the public.
That was years ago. I don't know
if they still continue with
those libraries.
I think that even though I
haven't been to one in years--I
mean, they're still up and
running, but I'm not exactly
sure. The big-- the big law
schools now, for example I think
they has a way for the public to
visit.
I believe just-- just because
it's such a huge institution and
I believe that there is some way
to have access to their
collections,basically. But also
the nice thing about UNAM and
other big universities is that
they have wonderful websites.
And in fact, UNAM I believe 
posts most of the research that
they do online and free.
So that's-- that's one one
source to keep in mind. The
[unclear] how to say in Spanish
[Spanish] the Institute for
investigation [Spanish]. So I
would Google UNAMIIJ.
[unclear] Google that and you--
you'll
see the--you'll reach the
website of the institute and it
just has a wealth of
information. In fact I think
I-- one of the sources that I
recommended I'm
told was published by them.
And they have a lot of Law 
Review publications. And there's
one called the Mexican Law 
Review. That is in English,
actually. And so it's a great,
great site to visit.
Again its UNAMIIJ.
So you [unclear] reach it.
And it's really really nice
website.
I visit it frequently and they 
never cease to amaze, too. All t
he things that they publish. And
for free. It's always free. Very
well-organized and just a wide
variety of law reviews. Mostly
in Spanish, but there are a few
in English too.
>> Gustavo Guerra: 
Someone is just sharing that 
they used the other guide to
Foreign and International legal
citations. Of course, that's--
that's a good source for sure-- 
for citations purposes.
See. I'm going through the
questions here.
Someone is asking if there is a
website in the the Mexican legal
system where you as lawyers can
visit or call and collect
information to handle children
kidnapping cases. I don't recall
one, but.
I guess the first starting point
for that could be what-- what is
known in Mexico as DIF.
And I don't recall exactly what
that stands for, but you can
Google DIF.mx That's just the
children's welfare
agency at the national level.
And it has-- also
operations in every Mexican
state. And so yeah, I would I
would check into that. There
must be, I mean, it would be a
good starting point to either
visit the website or even after
that contact them, and they will
point you in the right
direction on that topic. It's 2
minutes to
3 p.m.
Scroll through the questions 
here. Someone is saying that UNAM
seems to have a lot to do with 
Ebooks and journal articles in
Spanish for free.
Yeah, that's-- that's the one
that I-- that I was referring
to. I think that library is-- is
part of the
IIJ. But-- but at least there
are links there.
It is the same university just, you
know, a wide variety of
resources. But yeah, I mean,
it's wonderful. It's worth a
look for sure. We see.
It is almost 3:00.
So unfortunately there are going
to be a few questions that that
we won't-- we won't have time to
answer. But you can always
contact us through the Ask the 
Librarian resource that is shown
on the on the slide screen.
And again, this Is Gustavo 
Guerro, staff specialist with
the law library. Thank you very
much for joining us today, and
have a great rest of your day.