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Georgetown Law Library

Mexican Legal Research

This in-depth guide will help researchers navigate Mexican legal materials.

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Case Law

As a civil law country, the doctrine of precedent does not generally apply in Mexico.* As a result, case law is not as important as it is in common law jurisdictions like the United States, and court opinions are not always readily available. Those decisions that are available will usually be available only in Spanish. Decisions from the highest Mexican courts are more easily located, with lower court decisions often difficult to impossible to find.

* Limited exceptions apply to matters related to the amparo or involving the Organic Law of the Federal Judicial Branch. For more information on this topic, see e.g. José María Serna de la Garza, The Concept of Jurisprudencia in Mexican Law, 1 Mex. L. Rev. 131 no. 2 (New Series) (2009), available at https://revistas.juridicas.unam.mx/index.php/mexican-law-review/article/view/7725/9697.