On a recent morning, in a lecture hall tucked away in the first floor of the University of San Diego School of Law, students observed a mock trial.
They took notes and listened as an attorney cross-examined a witness about the intricate details of a case.
But they weren’t your typical USD law students. They were all Mexican judges visiting San Diego for a week-long legal seminar. For years, USD has offered legal workshops to Latin American lawyers, prosecutors, and judges.
These legal professionals often need training whenever there is a significant change in their own countries’ judicial systems.
For example, iIn Chile 30 years ago, they started with Oral Trials because of everything that country was going through,” said Karen Sigmond, assistant dean of international programs, referencing the dictatorship of Augustus Pinochet.
Argentina and, more recently, Mexico have made similar transitions. Under a written system, "everything is done through documents, through petitions, through paperwork," Sigmond said.
People rarely see the judge during their trial. Instead, someone just reads a document to make a determination, she added.
That shift in the Mexican legal system is why dozens of state judges from Baja California came to USD. Besides the mock trials, they visited local courthouses, met with state and federal judges and listened to lectures from law professors.
But an even greater change to Mexico’s judicial system has the judges on edge. Earlier this year, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador introduced a series of controversial reforms.
The new edict, which is supported by newly elected President Claudia Sheinbaum, calls for federal judges to be elected instead of appointed. The first round of elections is scheduled to take place in 2025.
In-between meetings with local judges, guest lectures and mock trials, the visiting judges visiting from Baja California talked about what the federal reforms meant for them and their country’s judicial system.
"Change is an inevitable part of life," said Judge Salvador Juan Ortiz Morales.
As a state judge based in Tijuana, Ortiz Morales won’t be immediately impacted by the federal reforms. But he believes that states will soon follow suit.
He is specifically concerned about the lack of job stability that comes with elections, and wonders whether Mexico’s best young lawyers would want to invest the decades of work required to become a good federal judge.
"We thought there was an established a sense of stability," Ortiz Morales said.
Meanwhile, Judge Ana Carolina Valencia Marquez believes she and her colleagues need to accept the reforms.
"We must continue to work as diligently as we can, that is the highest virtue of a public servant,” she said.
USD staff are already thinking of potential workshops that specifically address the federal reforms. California elects state judges, so our model can serve as a potential model for their Mexican counterparts, Sigmond said.
"USD is uniquely positioned because of our expertise, language, geography, and most importantly because we have friends in Mexico,” she said. "We believe this is a learning process for them, and a learning process for us."
But for now, they are focusing on helping visiting judges with the transition from written to oral trials. It is something judges believe will increase transparency and, hopefully, trust in the state court system.
"I think that’s a good thing," said Ortiz Morales. "The citizens should be allowed to see the judge."
