Writ of Amparo and the Judicial Reform in Mexico (1987-2018)

This paper departs from a crucial question to Mexican constitutionalism. After an intense period of three decades of judicial system reform, what is today’s writ of Amparo main role? To answer the former, the author proposes a sociolegal methodology analyzing two variables: 1) the impact that the big scale constitutional reform to the system of justice has over writ of Amparo, and 2) the constitutional reform to the writ of Amparo itself. The main hypothesis of this paper is that both variables are extremely important to understand today’s role of writ of Amparo, due to the enaction of new means of protection and conflict resolution, that could have a relevant effect on due process and other constitutional violations. The paper concludes that the judicial reform ratifies that controlling of the judicial system is the main function of the writ of Amparo, over other expectations built during the previous years.