COMPREHENSIVE LEGAL SOLUTION IN MEXICO

 Regarding international civil litigation, federal and state agencies shall be subject to the special rules, which this federal code sets forth in Book Four (Art. 544). One of these rules provides, for example, that federal and state agencies, and their public officials, “shall be impeded from producing any documents (or copies of them) which exist in the official archives under their control in Mexico; except for those cases which involve a personal matter and the documents or personal archives are permitted by the law and when, through the implementation of a letter rogatory, it is so ordered by a [competent] Mexican court.” (Art. 559).

 To produce legal effects in Mexico, foreign legal documents must be duly “legalized” by the competent Mexican consular authorities in accordance with the applicable laws, and be translated into Spanish by a duly authorized translator. However, foreign legal documents sent through official channels to produce legal effects need not be legalized (Art. 546).

 Letters rogatory (Exhortos) to be sent abroad by a Mexican court are the official communications requesting a foreign judge to carry out certain procedural acts required by a pending lawsuit in Mexico. Said communications must contain the necessary information as well as certified copies, notifications (or summons), copies of the initial complaint, or of the final and definite judgment rendered by the Mexican court, depending upon each individual case, as may be necessary (Art. 550).

 When a foreign judgment requires an act of repossession to take place in Mexico, for example, or any other judicial act to be enforced in that country in an “executive manner” (i.e., against the defendant’s will or his/her voluntary cooperation), said judgment is to be judicially provided by the competent Mexican court with “executive force.” In most cases, the competent court is one with jurisdiction over the defendant’s domicile or over the place where the real estate (or assets) is located. The judicial proceedings to endow a foreign judgment with “executive force” requires, in essence, a “mini-trial” requiring the presence of the two contending parties advancing their respective rights and the corresponding evidence. Under Mexican law, these technical and lengthy proceedings are known as Incidente de Homologación (Art. 574).

 The Commission for Environmental Cooperation, established as a result of NAFTA, sponsors an excellent trilingual (English/Spanish/French) web site with very useful information describing the environmental law framework in each of the three NAFTA parties: the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

 This information covers twenty-five subject areas, and includes an acronym list and a bibliography. The environmental subjects are: (1) Introduction to the Legal System; (2) Institutional framework; (3) Constitutional provisions; (4) General environmental law and policies; (5) Environmental information; (6) Public participation; (7) Environmental impact assessment; (8) Protection of the atmosphere; (9) Protection and management of water resources; (10) Protection of the oceans and coastal areas; 11) Chemical substances and products; (12) Waste management; (13) Responding to environmental contamination; (14) Environmental emergencies; (15) Private land use planning and management; (16) Environmental management of public lands; (17) Conservation of biological diversity and wildlife; (18) Mining; (19) Agriculture; (20) Forests and forest management; (21) Energy; (22) Transportation; (23) Military or federal facilities; (24) Other environmental issues; and (25) Transboundary and international issues.

 This is an excellent web site. It includes some two hundred pages of principally environmental legal information presented in a methodical and clear way. This site is current, authoritative and easy to navigate.

 It gives access to the treaties and conventions to which Mexico has become a party in the area of labor law, welfare and social protection.

 This electronic portal of the Presidency of Mexico makes available day-to-day information on the most salient acts of Vicente Fox Quesada, President of Mexico, and other members of his administration, including sporadic reports on current legal developments. Although some information is also available in English and French, the most complete information is found only in Spanish.

 This electronic portal is the official clearinghouse of the Federal government of Mexico. It provides a conduit to access any federal agency by simply typing up the name (in Spanish) of the agency in question. This portal claims to give access to 2,400 federal agencies.

 From an administrative viewpoint, Mexico’s federal government is structured in a centralized system known as the Federal Public Administration, as indicated earlier. This federal public administration resides in México, Distrito Federal (Mexico City or México, D.F.), which is the capital of the Republic of Mexico and the venue of its federal government (Washington, D.C. is the exact counterpart to México, D.F.).

 Composed of eighteen Secretariats (Secretarías de Estado), the Presidential Cabinet is highly specialized and enforces all federal legislative enactments throughout the Republic of Mexico as part of the Executive Power in the specific fields of their administrative jurisdiction, as prescribed by the Federal Public Administration Act (D.O. of December 29, 1976, as amended). Furthermore, each of these Secretariats regularly engages in the preparation of legal memoranda or draft legislation in their respective fields of their administrative sphere, which are then submitted to the Office of the President for his consideration. Among the important functions of the President of Mexico is the constitutional right to introduce legislative bills to Congress (Art. 71). A substantial percentage of federal legislative enactments passed by Congress are initiated by the President of the Republic.

 Each of the seventeen Secretariats sponsors its respective electronic portal. Evidently, these portals contain general and administrative information relative to the official work and activities of the Mexican federal agency in question. It should be noted, however, that a selected number of these agencies make available the texts of important legal materials, such as federal statutes, regulations, administrative resolutions, etc.

 A case in point, for example, is the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources whose official portal is: www.semarnat.gob.mx. This attractive portal has twenty five active frames in Spanish with information on: (1) Administrative requests and permits; (2) Transparency and Access to Information; 3) What is Semarnat?; (4) Semarnat’s administrative structure; (5) What is new?; (6) Semarnat in the States, etc.

 However, in this portal there are three active frames that should be of great interest to U.S. legal researchers because they make available Mexican legal materials relating to environmental questions. These active frames are:

 This section reproduces the texts of Articles 4, 25, 27, 73 and 115 of Mexico’s Federal Constitution due to their importance in the environmental area.

 This useful and lengthy section makes available the texts of seventy-five international environmental agreements at the bilateral, regional and global levels to which Mexico is a party. The dates of signature and entering into force are also given, as well as the official language(s) of each agreement.

 This section makes available the texts of thirty-five federal statutes, regulations and decrees of interest in the environmental area. The substance of these federal legislative enactments includes fishing, national waters, vegetable health, forestry, environmental crimes, wildlife, vegetable varieties to environmental impact, etc.

 This section reproduces the texts of twenty-five regulations in the areas of hazardous waste, marine pollution, mining, air pollution, the federal maritime land zone, utilization of marine spaces, etc.

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 Each enactment is identified by its official name (in Spanish), and the date of publication in the D.O. In addition, they may be downloaded in portable document format (PDF).

 These “Mexican Official Norms” (Normas Oficiales Mexicans known by the acronym NOMS) are the technical specifications mandated by Semarnat, as published in the D.O. that must be complied with by commercial companies in a given environmental area.

 -This section makes available the texts of ninety-seven NOMS divided into: (1) Primary Sector and Natural Resources (twenty-eight); (2) Energy and -Extracting Activities (nine); (3) Industry (twenty-seven); (4) Urban Development, Transport and Tourism (twenty-one); and (5) Emerging Norms (fifteen).

 This section gives access to fifty-four electronic portals of federal agencies whose functions and activities are related to the environmental area. The agencies are grouped This section gives access to fifty-four electronic portals of federal agencies whose functions and activities are related to the environmental area. The agencies are grouped into six categories: (1) Entities derived from Semarnat (five); (2) Entities connected with Semernat (two); (3) Secretariats and the Presidency (nine); (4) Parastate Public Administration (ten); (5) International organizations (nine); and (6) Other Sites of Interest (nineteen).

 (1) Semarnat; (2) Mexico’s Environmental Law; (3) Environmental Program 2001-2006; (4) Environmental Policy Background; (5) New Environmental Policy; (6) Protected Natural Areas; (7) Environmental Justice Program 2001-2006; (8) Environmental Crimes (Articles 414-423 of Mexico’s Environmental Act); (9) Megadiverse Countries; (10) International Dialogue and Adaptation to Climate Change; (11) Our Main Achievements 2001; and (12) Our Main Achievements 2002.

 Patterned after the U.S. political system, Mexico is a federal republic composed of thirty-one states and one Federal District (i.e., Mexico City, commonly abbreviated D.F., meaning Distrito Federal). Each of the thirty-one states has its own Constitution, which closely parallels the substance and format of the Federal Constitution. The local legislature of each state enacts legislation (i.e., codes, laws, decrees and regulations) which apply within the territorial boundaries of the state in question.

 In general, the legislative enactments of each State may be grouped under these four categories: (1) the Constitution; (2) the four major codes (civil code, code of civil procedure, criminal code, and code of criminal procedure); (3) local laws and statutes; (4) decrees, regulations and other administrative material. These legislative materials are available at the individual web site of each state.

 In general, the legislative enactments of each State may be grouped under these four categories: (1) the Constitution; (2) the four major codes (civil code, code of civil procedure, criminal code, and code of criminal procedure); (3) local laws and statutes; (4) decrees, regulations and other administrative material. These legislative materials are available at the individual web site of each state.

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