Mexico City.– Judge Juan Pablo Gómez Fierro warned that the judicial career is the best option for ensuring that technical criteria prevail in the decisions of judges.
However, the legal advisor of the Government of the State of Mexico and former comptroller of the INE, Jesús George Zamora, accused that with their resolutions the judges, magistrates and ministers intend to dictate the public policies of the Government.
At the third forum on judicial reform, held in Toluca, at the headquarters of the Congress of the State of Mexico, both participants expressed conflicting points of view on the work of the Judiciary.
Gómez Fierro stressed that the judicial career system, recommended by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UN, is based on selection and appointment processes for justice operators based on merit and professional capabilities.
“I am convinced that this system, which can certainly be improved, is the most appropriate for the selection and appointment of future judges and magistrates.
“It is in the courts where, based on the study of specific cases, the skills and abilities for solving cases are developed by integrating the files, identifying legal problems and, from an eminently technical criterion, solving them through the interpretation and application of the law,” he argued regarding the selection of judges.
The judge, who has issued rulings against the federal government’s energy policy, cited as an example his own career advancement in the judiciary, with 22 years of practice and specialization.
“This same system is what has allowed me to go through each of the categories that make up the judicial career up to the position I currently hold as Circuit Magistrate.
“As a judicial officer, judicial clerk, court secretary, collegiate court secretary, Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the last decade as a federal judge, a career of more than 22 years, more than half of my life I have dedicated to the professional practice in which, like many others, I have had to face the difficulties that each of these positions represent,” highlighted the magistrate of the Fourteenth Collegiate Court in Administrative Matters of the First Circuit.
Specialising in tax law, public law, constitutional law and administrative law, he reiterated that technical criteria must be applied to maintain the independence of the judiciary.
He recalled that the judicial career has been in place in Mexico for three decades.
“I also refuse to believe that these 30 years of the selection system have only resulted in corruption, inefficiencies, impunity or influence peddling,” he said.
The disputes being reviewed have a multifactorial factor, which considers not only courts but also the authorities in charge of public safety, the investigation and prosecution of crimes, the reparation of damages to victims, and the judges who resolve in the first instance.
“I think that a judicial reform must include problems in order for it to be a complete reform,” he said.
On the subject of austerity, the existence of trusts in the Judiciary and respect for labor rights, Gómez Fierro assured that no one in the Judiciary receives more than the President of the Republic.
Without pointing out the legislative branch for not having established the amount of all the Executive’s salaries, he said that when that happens, the salaries of all public servants can be set.
“The jurisdictional criteria that have been issued on this matter point to the need to clearly define the remuneration of the President of the Republic, in order to establish the parameter according to which the remuneration of all public servants should be applied,” said the magistrate.
After this intervention, Jesús George Zamora spoke, warning that the Government or legislators are the ones who can deliberate on a public policy, and that this is not the responsibility of the judges.
“Judges insist on entering the field of formulation and discussion of public policies and overstep their original authority to concentrate on resolving specific cases.
“Therefore, there must be stricter control over the people who will be judges, at least those who will be members of the highest bodies,” he said.
Close to the political group of the Secretary of Government of the State of Mexico, Horacio Duarte, Zamora said he was in favor of the election by direct vote of judges, magistrates and ministers, so that their resolutions have the support that only the popular vote gives.
He said the reform would compensate for judges invading the powers of the Executive and Legislative branches by deciding on public policies that do not concern them.
“If judicial self-restraint has failed and judges believe that their jurisdictional powers should encompass the definition of public policies with general effects, one way to balance this functional organic alteration is to subject judges to a more democratic selection regime,” said Zamora.
After also questioning the underspending in the Budget and the creation of trusts to generate benefits for judges, he said that there must be prudence in the Judiciary.
“Whatever the fate of the constitutional reform initiative, one thing is clear: ministers, magistrates and federal judges must act with true judicial prudence, both when issuing their resolutions and in the use of their public resources; they cannot afford to continue rowing against the current.
“Fortunately, good judges, those who exercise true judicial prudence, are the majority, judges, men and women, are those who will make the Judicial Branch of our country flourish and be a true watchdog of justice for our people,” he concluded.
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