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CHAPTER XVIIIAdministrative Litigation1. IntroductionIn Mexico, the actions of governmental authorities are governed by the principle of legality,which has a constitutional basis. When a governmental authority acts unlawfully, the lawestablishes control mechanisms. There are two means of control under Mexican Law. First,there is self-regulation within the administrative bodies themselves, through administrativeappeals. Second, there are two judicial means of control consisting of administrativecourt proceedings processed before administrative courts (autonomous from the JudicialBranch) and the amparo proceeding before the courts of the Federal Judicial Branch.In the Mexican legal system there are multiple special administrative bodies and courtsthat exercise specific powers in different spheres of economic activity. While such bodiesand courts cannot be excluded from the administrative and judicial means of controlexplained below, we consider that their existence and jurisdiction merit a more detaileddescription at the end of this chapter.3032. Administrative AppealIn general terms, the activities of the authorities belonging to the federal public administrationin relation to private parties is regulated by the Federal Law of Administrative Procedures(Ley Federal de Procedimiento Administrativo, LFPA). Such law applies to the acts,procedures, and rulings of the centralized federal public administration (the Presidency ofthe Republic, the ministries of State, the administrative departments, the Federal ExecutiveJudicial Advisory Board [Consejería Jurídica del Ejecutivo Federal]) and of the parastatal federalpublic administration (decentralized bodies, companies with state investment, nationalcredit institutions, auxiliary national credit organizations, national insurance, bond andtrust institutions) with respect to their governmental actions, the services that the State providesexclusively and the contracts that only private parties may execute with the State.