Faced with the imminent arrival of the new adversarial trial system [in which prosecutors and defense lawyers present evidence in oral arguments before a judge in a public trial, rather than submitting documents for judges' private decisions], the Federal Judiciary Council (FJC) has raised ''red flags'' over the deficit in the designation of more than thirty judges and eighty magistrates. Currently, clerks of the courts and of the tribunals act as substitutes [for the vacant positions].
After nearly twenty years of judicial reform, which resulted in the creation of the Federal Judiciary Council (chaired by the President of the Supreme Court), the balance sheet on competitive examinations for electing judges and magistrates continues to be negative. Officials consulted stated that the FJC has not been capable of determining the profile that federal judges must meet, so that through competitive examinations the best men might be elected to fill the offices of federal judges. This was the goal proposed in the constitutional reform of 1994.
After nearly twenty years of judicial reform, which resulted in the creation of the Federal Judiciary Council (chaired by the President of the Supreme Court), the balance sheet on competitive examinations for electing judges and magistrates continues to be negative. Officials consulted stated that the FJC has not been capable of determining the profile that federal judges must meet, so that through competitive examinations the best men might be elected to fill the offices of federal judges. This was the goal proposed in the constitutional reform of 1994.
When it resolves the administrative reviews of complaints against the current competitive examination, the Court has in its hands the possibility of establishing criteria to achieve this goal.
During the administration of Justice President John N. Silva Meza, three competitions have been conducted to select district judges. The first two, to elect sixty judges (thirty in each), were canceled because they were declared unconstitutional by the Court until the administrative reviews of the participants are resolved.
Faced with the failure, the FJC convened a new competition to designate seventy judges. [This competition] has already been challenged in its first stage. With the need to appoint circuit magistrates, the Judicial Council conducted a contest for forty judges that might ascend to become magistrates. This has created a vicious cycle. There are neither enough judges in place, nor enough to fill the positions of magistrate. Instead, those who are acting [in their stead] are court and tribunal clerks, who neither needed to take nor pass exams.
Currently, there are a total of 725 jurisdictional courts: 296 are tribunals--95 are unitary [one judge] and 201 are collegiate (composed of three judges each); and 429 district courts. In more than 15 percent of these courts and tribunals, justice is not dispensed by a judicial official qualified for the position.
The situation is complicated because the legality of the contest to elect seventy district judges--currently underway--was questioned. It was challenged by some applicants to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) because of the number of inconsistencies that it presented.
The plaintiffs challenged, by means of resources for administrative review, that the first stage of the examination--conducted last April--presented a number of irregularities, including the fact that questions were developed based on legal criteria that were modified recently by the Supreme Court itself, which meant that affected [items] were counted as wrong answers that in reality were correct.
Issues Without Updating
Furthermore, according to judicial sources consulted, in the first stage of that competition questions were not updated to the contents of the new law of amparo [protection; injunction] which recently came into force. This is inexplicable, they [plaintiffs] indicated.
''The competition in process rewards those who did not update their knowledge of jurisprudence and, as if that were not enough, did not take into account the new Law of Amparo, which constitutes the backbone of the current criminal justice system," they emphasized.The latest failure to elect the judges, and thus the possibility of progress in development of the professional profile that federal judges must meet, has already claimed its first victim: Judge Leonel Castillo González, director of the Federal Judicial Institute (the agency charged with developing and implementing the competitive examinations for electing federal judges and magistrates), was forced to resign his position on June first.
According to officials consulted, the fact of having a long career as a circuit judge, and then serving on the Electoral Tribunal of the Judiciary of the Federation (TEPJF)--over which he presided--was worth a ''smooth'' exit without major complications. In his place, the magistrate Julio César Vázquez Mellado was appointed. Vázquez Mellado served previously as Director of the Institute. Spanish original