Red de Justicia

The Justice in Mexico Project at the Trans-Border Institute of the University of San Diego is pleased to host the Red de Justicia / Justice Network, a collaborative research project with Mexico City think tank CIDAC (Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo). Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Red de Justicia comprises academics and experts from nine Mexican states who gather to analyze state-level criminal justice developments and work to identify best practices in justice reform. By emphasizing sub-national change, the Red creates an important network for scholars and experts who advocate for justice sector reform at the state and local level in Mexico. The Red de Justicia helps to decentralize national-level policy analysis and debates on key criminal justice issues, such as the evolution of an adversarial system, the revamping of state criminal codes, and the incorporation of new sentencing mechanisms and trial procedures. The Red de Justicia hosts regular working group meetings and public forums dealing with state-level criminal justice reform in Mexico, and its members regularly contribute papers and reports on state-level criminal justice developments on this website.

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Academics and Experts: The Red / Network comprises professors of law, social scientists, state court judges, and non-governmental advocates from nine Mexican states: Aguascalientes, Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Querétaro, Jalisco, and Zacatecas. In many cases, the Red’s 15 current members hold concurrent positions in academia, the judiciary, or government, while all are closely involved in studying and shaping their state’s criminal justice systems.

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Working Group Meetings: Over the course of 2007 and 2008, the Justice Network will host eight working group meetings – to be accompanied by public forums – that will enable members to discuss reforms taking place in their particular states. Beginning with the first meeting in Coahuila scheduled for March 2007, the meetings will bring together not only Red de Justicia members but also outside speakers and panelists to discuss some of the most salient issues influencing the debate today, such as the introduction of oral argument in criminal proceedings.

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Technical Analyses, Papers, and Reports: Among other tangible outputs, Red de Justicia members also produce technical analyses and reports on state-level criminal justice developments. These bilingual reports, jointly published by CIDAC and the Justice in Mexico Project, trace the legal history of the reform debate in the individual states, paying particularly close attention to political and social conditions; enumerate the many proposed and approved amendments to state criminal codes; and offer detailed diagnoses of the problems afflicting the Mexican criminal justice system. The two most recent reports, on crime rates and the overhaul of the state criminal code in Baja California, and the evolution of alternative sentencing in Coahuila, will soon be available on the “Resources” page of the Justice in Mexico Project website by clicking on the “Documents from our partners” tab.