A little bit of history

Justice in Mexico began as a collaborative research initiative entitled the “Project on Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico,” which was launched by Wayne Cornelius and David Shirk at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies of University of California, San Diego (2001-2005). In 2005, David Shirk relocated the project to the University of San Diego, the new host institution, where the project was initially associated with the Trans-Border Institute. In 2013, Justice in Mexico became a free standing program based in the Department of Political Science and International Relations. Over the years, Justice in Mexico has partnered with numerous international and Mexican experts and organizations working toward the shared goal of reducing problems of crime and violence, strengthening criminal justice system, and bolstering protections for human rights in Mexico.

2001-2003

The Beginnings (2001-2003)

From 2001 to 2003, we worked to cultivate an interdisciplinary network of leading scholars and experts to bring attention to these issues for national and international audiences. A major edited volume, titled Reforming the Administration of Justice in Mexico, compiled many of the findings and recommendations of many of our key collaborators and helped provide both a diagnosis and a roadmap for change in Mexico.

 

2001-2003

2004-2008

Defining the organization (2004-2008)

From 2004 to 2008, along with many others working toward similar objectives, Justice in Mexico was a key agent of change in a time of great turbulence and fluctuation. We worked closely with the members of our “Red de Justicia”—and with the Mexican government and other non-governmental organizations— to foster much needed analysis and debate on the best approaches to reforming the administration of justice in Mexico, including close collaboration with Los Pinos, the Mexican Congress, and state governments working to introduce major judicial sector reforms.

 

2004-2008

2009

Judicial sector reform in Mexico (2009)

Since 2009, our program has played a key role in the attempt to implement and enhance judicial sector reform in Mexico, as well as efforts to bolster binational cooperation between the U.S. and Mexican governments to address their shared responsibilities in the face of serious challenges of crime and violence. In particular, Justice in Mexico has developed new tools to monitor and evaluate the rule of law in Mexico, and has played a direct role in helping to implement key reforms needed to increase the transparency, efficiency, and fairness of the criminal justice system.

2009

September, 2014

Justice in Mexico opens its new website

In an effort to modernize its image, and implement some of the latest data-mining technologies, Justice in Mexico opened in September 2014 a new redesigned website.

September, 2014

Today

Justice in Mexico today

In short, for more than a decade, Justice in Mexico has continued to promote analysis, dialogue, and policy solutions to address a variety of urgent problems related to security and violence, transparency and accountability, and justice and human rights issues in Mexico and the U.S.-Mexican border region. Serving as a kind of international “observatory,” Justice in Mexico’s website helps to disseminate reliable information and analysis of key issues and developments in Mexico, especially those that do not make it into mainstream U.S. or international news.

Today

Copyright © David A. Shirk, 2005. The Justice in Mexico Project is a research initiative of David A. Shirk, Ph.D. Links to this site are permitted without reservation, and the reproduction and distribution of the project’s web-based outputs is also permitted with proper citation: Justice in Mexico Project (www.justiceinmexico.org). Authors and programmers retain their copyright ownership of individually-credited posts and other materials used in this site.