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VOLUME
3
PREFACE
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The book Mexican Law: A Treatise for
Legal Practitioners and International Investors, published in 1998
in Volumes 1 and 2 as a collective work under the scholastic guidance
of Professor Jorge A. Vargas of the University of San Diego School
of Law, was enthusiastically welcomed. |
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This collective Treatise -which compiled the work of an eminent group
of jurists and legal practitioners from Mexico and the United States-,
appeared in professional and legal fora at the most propitious time:
right after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA). The two volumes contained a total of twenty-eight chapters
which, in my opinion, provided readers with the most authoritative
and current information in the areas of business, investment and international
trade. As James R. Jones, then U.S. Ambassador to Mexico stated in
his Foreword, "This ambitious book will provide in one place
all the information that a legal practitioner or international investor
will need to prepare and conduct business in Mexico... An additional
advantage of the book is that it provides important perspectives...
The commitment to update it on a regular basis will mean that it will
be useful and current for years to come." |
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The comment made by Ambassador Jones anticipated what was going to
happen two years later. Professor Vargas has now finished the editing
of Volume III of the Treatise with twelve new chapters. At the dawn
of the new century West Group published a sequel of the original work
which follows in detail the style and format of the previous volumes. |
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spectrum of today's Mexican legal system is quite broad. It would
take an immense effort to try to confine its boundaries within the
brief pages of a synopsis or a digest. However, an honest and good
faith effort to capture the intricacies of selected areas of Mexico's
domestic legislation may be a feasible undertaking. Evidently, the
purpose of the Editor has been to provide legal knowledge in those
key areas which attract the interest of international investors and
legal practitioners. After the publication of the first edition, Prof.
Vargas detected that certain fields of business and investment were
not covered in the original volumes or required an update to put them
in symmetry with recent legal developments. This explains the thematic
broadening of the contents of the Treatise. With these recent additional
materials the reader can be certain to acquire not only a consolidated
text but an up to date and useful tool to confidently approach a diverse
and complex subject matter. |
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new chapters in Volume 3 embrace multiple fields of Mexican legal
disciplines and legislation under a common denominator: the unique
perspective of the potential investor or international trader who
has decided to do business in that hospitable country. Only as a summary
exercise we shall endeavor to encompass in a "nutshell"
the basic features of the individual contributions. |
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first chapter addresses Mexico's 1998 Foreign Investment Regulations
(published in the Diario Oficial of September 8, 1998), which repealed
the first Regulations enacted in 1989. The new Regulations are in
symmetry with the current 1993 Foreign Investment Act and aside from
covering the legal lacunae of the former enactment, they address certain
issues which were previously ignored or superficially covered, as
is the case with the National Registry of Foreign Investment, for
example. |
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second chapter touches upon one of the most modern and sensitive areas
in Mexico: the banking system and the efforts by Mexico's federal
legislature to modernize and rescue (from its profound and severe
crisis) the infrastructure of credit institutions. |
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| Aviation
Law and the process to privatize local airports is another interesting
and current topic which is objectively analyzed by a Monterrey jurist.
The privatization of the electricity industry is approached in a similar
vein, albeit with certain caution, by two distinguished lawyers from
a Mexico City law firm. The increased dependency on electronic means
of communication -including the Internet "revolution"-,
motivated the government of Mexico to pursue not only the opening
of the market to a larger number of participants in the long distance
and local services but also to increase competition among value added
and similar telecommunications providers. These policies have clearly
brought the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, an important
legal area analyzed by a prominent attorney of the firm I founded
fifty years ago. |
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| Port
development law is the subject of the essay written by the General
Legal Counsel of the Office of Ports and Merchant Marine of the Secretariat
of Communications and Transport (SCT). This is a valuable contribution
on a rather unexplored field which is of current interest as a result
of the recent authorizations granted to private entities to manage
integral port systems and directed at handling an increased volume
of maritime cargo generated by Mexico's trade exchanges. |
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pragmatic and unavoidable matter of corporate taxation when transacting
business in Mexico, centering on issues of choice of entity and selected
tax, is explored by two experts from each side of the U.S.-Mexico
border. The Treaty entered into between Mexico and the United States
of America to Avoid Double Taxation has been in force for several
years, and the regulations enacted by each country produce an impact
on the entity to be chosen as the operating vehicle. |
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Vargas is the author of the study on Mexico's Fishing Law, another
subject that deserves more attention by potential investors. The antitrust
law (Ley Federal de Competencia Económica, 1993) and the official
duties of the Federal Competition Commission, an ever increasing battlefield,
is the subject of the contribution by three co-authors of one of the
oldest law firms in Mexico City. Competition issues have truly arisen
since the corresponding law was enacted seven years ago. Not only
have major transactions been subject to prior notification and, on
occasion, the object of divestment of assets and/or operations but
also numerous claims are now being reviewed on charges of anti-competitive
bahavior. |
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Maquiladora industry's legal regime was already included among the
chapters of Volume I of this Treatise. However, the Regulations of
this program had not been promulgated at the time of its publishing.
They were enacted in 1998. A distinguished lady lawyer, an specialist
on this area in Mexico, gives us the benefit of her expertise regarding
the Regulations and their impact vis a vis the future implementation
of NAFTA's Phase II which will come into effect on January 2001 concerning
the waiver of Mexican import duties on the raw materials used by Maquiladoras. |
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| Customs
law and its relationship with NAFTA's provisions was peripherally
examined in the first two volumes. However, an integral analysis of
customs internal regulations and provisions of the North American
Free trade Agreement was lacking. Such comparative study is included
now in Volume III. Likewise, the environmental impact and the handling
of industrial waste -one of the priorities sought in one of NAFTA'a
Side Agreements, and also the subject of various disputes arisen under
the Investment Chapter of this trilateral Agreement-, is the topic
of another chapter of Volume III. Their authors examine thoroughly
the roots of the problem and its serious repercussions on the industry. |
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summary, we now have a valuable addition to an already useful legal
tool for investors, practitioners and academics. Stephen Zamora, Dean
and Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, made
an excellent review of the first two volumes of the Treatise. The
last paragraph of his review summarized his evaluation of the 1998
collective work as follows: |
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| ...Mexican
Law represents a breakthrough, a highly useful introduction to a legal
system that has been largely ignored by lawyers in the United states
as well as many other countries. Unlike most books published on Mexican
law, either in Spanish or English, Mexican Law includes some important
aids for the lawyer/researcher -model legal forms, bibliographies,
glossaries and useful appendices (synopses of Mexican laws, directories,
tables of Mexican treaties, and tables of statutes and regulations
cited in the text). For this reason, Mexican Law will be useful for
academics as well as practitioners as a starting point for an understanding
or examination of particular aspects of Mexican law. |
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| Congratulations
to Professor Vargas and the distinguished group of authors who collaborated
in this valuable task. |
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Prof.
José Luis Siqueiros,
Universidad Iberoamericana
Mexico City.
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Author
& General Coordinator:
JORGE A. VARGAS
Professor of Law,
University of San Diego School of Law
Published by ©West
Group (1998)
To Purchase this book
Call (in US)1-800 -344-5009
In Mexico 011-800-998-2266
Special Package Price: $410 US Dollars
Special Package Includes Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4
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