1E9Ct5D

CHAPTER XXIState Liability1. IntroductionWith a reform of Article 113 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States(Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos) on June 14, 2002 a new form ofstrict and direct State liability for damages and losses caused to private parties was incorporatedinto Mexico’s legal system.Before this reform, State liability was not recognized constitutionally and was only lightlyregulated by Article 1927 of the Federal Civil Code (Código Civil Federal), which establisheda double regime of joint and several and secondary liability in relation to the damagesand losses caused to private parties by public officials in the exercise of their duties.In effect, according to this regime the State was jointly and severally liable for the damagesand losses caused by its officials, provided that such harm had been caused byunlawful and willful misconduct, while it was secondarily liable in relation to the assetsof the public servant in question “in all other cases.”This regime had many inconvenient aspects. The first and most notable was the needto prove in court the unlawful and willful misconduct of the public official causing thedamage in order to be able to demand indemnification from the State as jointly and severallyliable.In addition, even in a case where the willful act of the official was proved in court,there was a greater problem: there were no indemnificatory parameters applicable to theState, nor any budget stipulated for these indemnifications, the circumstances for which,added to the political implications, made any decision against the State unenforceable.Thus, with the reform of Article 113 of the Constitution, a breakthrough occurred inMexican legal history by creating a new and effective liability regime against the State,a regime in which State liability is strict and direct, regardless of whether the conductof the public official causing the damage was unlawful or willful, and thereby eliminatingthe distinction between joint and several liability and secondary liability.329