The making of law
Subtitle: the Supreme Court and labor legislation in Mexico, 1875-1931
By: William J. Suarez-Potts
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Stanford, California
Language: eng
Number of pages: 348
ISBN-13: 9780804775519
Subjects: Mexico; Labor laws and legislation; Mexico. Suprema Corte de Justicia; History
Description: "Despite Porfirio Diaz's authoritarian rule (1877-1911) and the years of violent conflict typifying much of Mexican politics after 1910, law and judicial decision-making were important for the country's political and economic organization. Influenced by French theories of jurisprudence in addition to domestic events, progressive Mexican legal thinkers concluded that the liberal view of the law--existing primarily to guarantee the rights of individuals and of private property--was inadequate for solving the 'social question'; the aim of the legal regime should instead be one of harmoniously regulating relations between interdependent groups of social actors. This book argues that the federal judiciary's adjudication of labor disputes and its elaboration of new legal principles played a significant part in the evolution of Mexican labor law and the nation's political and social compact. Indeed, this conclusion might seem paradoxical in a country with a civil law tradition, a weak judiciary, an authoritarian government, and endemic corruption. Suarez-Potts, however, shows how and why judge-made law mattered, and why contemporaries paid close attention to the rulings of Supreme Court justices in labor cases as the nation's system of industrial relations was established"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The rights of free labor, 1875-1910; title: Free labor and the federal judiciary, 1875-1910; title: Porfirian industrial relations and the rights of labor; title: Toward social legislation; title: Legislating labor law, 1911-1924; title: The Supreme Court and labor law, 1917-1924; title: Labor law and Supreme Court decisions, 1925-1931; title: The enactment of the Federal Labor Law, 1925-1931.