Ley Juárez

Ley Juárez, a Mexican law abolishing military and ecclesiastical fueros (privileges) named for Benito Juárez, its principal author. The law, dated 11 November 1855, was promulgated by President Juan Álvarez, while Juárez was his minister of justice. The law contained seventy-seven main articles that had the effect of abolishing all special tribunals except the military and ecclesiastical courts. Although the Ley Juárez did not abolish these courts, it did end the military and ecclesiastical fueros in civil cases. Priests and military officers could no longer change the venue of trials for civil offenses to the ecclesiastical or military courts. Sinkin argues that the law accepted the basic corporate structure of society and did not abolish the entire fuero system since the church courts retained the right to hear criminal cases. As the first of the Reform Laws, the Ley Juárez was approved as part of the Constitution of 1857.

See alsoAnticlericalism; Juárez, Benito.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Richard N. Sinkin, The Mexican Reform, 1855–1876: A Study in Liberal Nation-Building (1979), pp. 98-99, 123-124.

Additional Bibliography

Arnold, Linda. Política y justicia: La Suprema Corte mexicana (1824–1855). México, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, 1996.

Ramos Medina, Manuel, ed. Memoria del I Coloquio Historia de la Iglesia en el Siglo XIX. México, D.F.: Centro de Estudios de Historia de México Condumex, 1998.

                                            D. F. Stevens