Mexico Trade Capacity Building Project: Enhancement of the Business and Legal Environment and Trade Capacity through Legal Reform and Improvements in the Administration of Justice by Commercial Courts in Mexico

The project aimed to improve the capacity of Mexican judges to conduct oral trials in civil matters. In January 2011, the NLCIFT finalized program materials and conducted an initial oral trial training workshop for 12 Mexican judges in Mexico City. The workshop employed a learn-from-practice methodology, including open dialogue, practice simulations, and mock trials. The training team consisted of bilingual Arizona judges, attorneys, and NLCIFT researchers. The judges received excellent feedback from the evaluation forms completed after the workshop. The NLCIFT also met with USAID-Mexico representatives and other Mexican authorities, including the Mexican Federal Competition Commission (COFECO), to discuss further project activities. COFECO agreed to provide sample judicial decisions where courts had not understood technical issues in competition policy, requiring additional training. The NLCIFT's second training session for the 12 Mexican judges focused on pre-trial settlement conferences (conciliation) in February 2011. The session included substantive presentations, mock conciliations, and discussions on the Mexican judges' past involvement in conciliation conferences. Initially, the NLCIFT was scheduled to conduct initial training for judicial staff on March 8-10, 2011, but the date was postponed due to the delay in the entry into force of the Mexican Code of Civil Procedure reforms introducing an oral trial process. The Instituto also decided to postpone the staff training to the second half of 2011. The NLCIFT continued to coordinate activities with the Instituto, including the possibility of conducting additional presentations/lectures on alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms, such as arbitration and mediation. The NLCIFT maintained dialogue with the U.S. Department of State, USAID-Mexico, and Mexican counterparts, including the Federal Supreme Court of Justice, the Instituto, and the Mexican Registry of Secured Transactions (RUG), in connection with a colloquium on secured transactions and the judiciary to be held in Mexico City during the second quarter of 2011. The colloquium was initially scheduled for May 9, 2011, but was postponed to June 2, 2011, to enable the RUG and the Mexican Ministry of the Economy to make an announcement at the local level regarding the progress achieved by the registry. In the next quarter (April to June 2011), the NLCIFT planned to conduct a planning trip to advance arrangements for the ADR lecture in early May and the colloquium in early June, including an initial meeting with the Federal Judicial Institute. The NLCIFT also planned to conduct an ADR presentation entitled "Reforms in Mediation and Arbitration: The Role of Courts" in early May 2011. The NLCIFT would finalize the planning and arrangements for the colloquium on secured transactions and the judiciary, to be held on June 2, 2011, at the Federal Judicial Institute in Mexico City.