This week Constitutional Conversations posts the video from a February 2023 Center for Constitutional Design event dedicated to discussing “Constitutional Change in Mexico.” Three prominent scholars of Mexican law and politics joined us to discuss the current state of democracy and constitutional law in Mexico. They explained that Mexico is at a crossroads, with challenging times ahead for the Mexican Constitution, one of the oldest and most amended in the world. Enacted in 1917, it was the product of a social revolution. During its long life, the Mexican Constitution was functional for the long period of an authoritarian hegemonic-party regime, but it was also key in the protracted transition to democracy. The Constitution is now the locus of acute tensions between legitimate demands for inclusion, social and economic, and the stability of the rules for accessing and exercising political power. The destination of Mexican democracy is uncertain, but the patterns of more than a hundred years of constitutional change reveal surprising clues.
Speakers included:
Stefanie Lindquist- Moderator
Executive Director | Center for Constitutional Design
Foundation Professor of Law and Political Science | Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law
Julio Antonio Rios Figueroa
Associate Professor at the Department of Law at ITAM in Mexico City. Fellow at the Wilson Center, in Washington.
Andrea Pozas-Loyo
Full-time Professor at the IIJ-UNAM (Institute of Legal Research)
Manuel González
Member of the UNAM academic staff since 1982 as a researcher at the Legal Research Institute (1982-2012). Currently a Career Professor at the Faculty of Law in the Graduate Studies Division
Constitutional Change in Mexico