Debating Mexico's Judicial Reform

This panel will explore  the recent judicial reform in Mexico. Leading scholars will debate the implications of this reform, addressing critical issues of judicial independence, prosecutorial accountability, and constitutionalism. The popular election of judges and magistrates raises important questions regarding its impact on democracy and the politization of justice, as well as its effects on Mexican institutions, economic stability, and international relations.

Speakers:

Veronica Michel, Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College-CUNY

Julio Rios Figueroa, Profesor Titular (Associate Professor) at the Department of Law at ITAM in Mexico City, and a a Non-Resident Fellow at the Neukom Center for the Rule of Law at Stanford University School of Law

Moderated by Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University

About the Speakers

Dr. Verónica Michel is Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College-CUNY. Her research focuses on victims’ rights, public prosecutor’s offices, procedural justice, and rule of law in Latin America. Dr. Michel currently is the ICJ BA Director and is co-editor (with Robin Holder and Alice Bosma) of the Research Handbook on Victims, Rights, and Justice. 

Julio Ríos-Figueroa is Profesor Titular (Associate Professor) at the Department of Law at ITAM in Mexico City, and a a Non-Resident Fellow at the Neukom Center for the Rule of Law at Stanford University School of Law. Before joining ITAM, he was Professor of Political Science at CIDE. Ríos-Figueroa received his Ph.D. in Politics from New York University (NYU). His research focuses on comparative judicial politics, the rule of law, and empirical legal studies with a focus on the Latin American region. His scholarly work on these topics can be found  here. 

About the Moderator

Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government, Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard.  He is also a Senior Democracy Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Senior Fellow at the Kettering Foundation.   His research focuses on democracy and authoritarianism, political parties, weak and informal institutions, and most recently, the crisis of democracy in the United States.  He and Daniel Ziblatt are authors of How Democracies Die, which was a New York Times best-seller and was published in 30 languages, and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.  Levitsky has written or edited 11 other books, including Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press 2003), Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War (with Lucan Way) (Cambridge University Press, 2010), and Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism (with Lucan Way) (Princeton University Press, 2022).   He and Lucan Way are currently writing a book on the sources of global democratic resilience in the 21st Century. 

Presented in collaboration with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs.