The Rule of Law and Mexico's Energy Reform

Overview

The 2013 changes to the constitutional framework and the summer 2014 enabling legislation in Mexico’s energy industry represent a thorough break with the prevailing national narrative as well as the political and legal traditions of 20th century Mexico. Mexico is about to embark on an unprecedented opening of its energy sector in the midst of important unknown factors, as well as a fiercely competitive and expanding international energy market. Mexico is one of the last developing countries to open its energy sector to foreign investment, and although there are important lessons that can be learned from other countries’ experiences, this does not imply that the opening will be necessarily as successful as the government promises or that the implementation of the new laws will go smoothly. Almost certainly adjustments will have to be carried out as the new laws are executed. That is, after the enabling legislation goes into effect, important questions of law will emerge during the implementation and unavoidably refinements to the legislation will have to take place.

The book, “Estado de Derecho y Reforma Energetica en México,” written in Spanish, is the culmination of a major research effort to examine rule of law issues arising under the energy reform in Mexico by drawing on scholars and experts from American and Mexican institutions in order to bring attention to the different component parts of the new Mexican energy sector from a legal standpoint.

The book is available for purchase online from Tirant lo Blanch-México. The chapters are also available in English (click on the links below).

This study was directed by the Baker Institute’s Mexico Center at Rice University and the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law at the University of Houston Law Center, in association with the School of Government and Public Transformation of the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, the Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo A.C. (CIDAC), and the Faculty of Law and Criminology at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.

The experts and scholars participating in the project also represented the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies, Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice, the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas and the University of Texas at Brownsville. On March 13, 2015, the Mexico Center team participated in an authors' workshop at the Santa Fe campus of Tecnológico de Monterrey.

Group shot of all participants — The Mexico Center team and some of the authors at a workshop at the Santa Fe campus of Tecnológico de Monterrey on March 13, 2015.

Events

As part of the project, the partner organizations hosted events to present the research findings. The first conference was held on Feb. 11, 2016, in Houston at the Baker Institute, co-hosted by the Baker Institute Mexico Center and the University of Houston's Center for U.S. and Mexican Law. The conference focused on the challenges Mexico faces in implementing energy reform. It examined key aspects on the new energy sector, such as global energy markets and investment protection, oversight, regulatory, and legal issues as well as social and security challenges. Alejandro Ponce, Ph.D., chief research officer of the World Justice Project, delivered the keynote address, and morning remarks were offered by Luis Rubio, chairman of the Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo, A.C. (CIDAC) and nonresident fellow at the Baker Institute Mexico Center. For more information on the event, including video and photos, please visit http://bakerinstitute.org/events/1762/.

On March 14, 2017, the book was presented in Mexico City in an event organized by organized by the School of Government and Public Transformation at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Baker Institute Mexico Center, where academics and members of the industry from Mexico and the United States discussed fundamental aspects that need to be addressed regarding the new challenges to Mexico’s energy industry. For more information on the event, please visit: http://www.bakerinstitute.org/events/1861/.

On June 8, 2017, the book was also presented in Monterrey at an event organized by the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and the Baker Institute Mexico Center. For more information on the event, please visit: http://www.bakerinstitute.org/events/1881/

Chapters and Authors

PROLOGUE: ENERGY, MEXICO, AND "THE MEXICAN WAY"

Luis Rubio
CIDAC

INTRODUCTION

Hector Fix Fierro
Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México

PART 1: THE REFORM PROCESS

THE NEW ENERGY SYSTEM IN THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION

José Ramón Cossío Díaz
Supreme Court Justice of Mexico

José Ramón Cossío Barragán

ENERGY REFORM AND POLITICAL REPRESENTATION: THE IMPORTANCE OF NEGOTIATION AND PUBLIC DELIBERATION

Mara I. Hernández
Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

José del Tronco
 FLACSO México

THE NEW LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK OF THE MEXICAN ELECTRICAL SECTOR: POSSIBILITIES OF INCLUSION OF SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES

Ana Lilia Moreno
CIDAC

PART 3: THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ENERGY

CONTINENTAL ENERGY INTEGRATION IN NORTH AMERICA: THE EMERGENCE OF NON-CONVENTIONAL FUELS AND THE RESTRUCTURING OF INTEGRATIVE TRENDS

Isidro Morales
Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

THE RULE OF LAW AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN OIL: RESOURCE NATIONALISM IN LATIN AMERICA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MEXICO

Francisco Monaldi
Baker Institute Mexico Center and Center for Energy Studies

ARBITRATION AND INVESTMENT PROTECTION IN THE CONTEXT OF MEXICO’S ENERGY REFORM: AN INITIAL APPROXIMATION FROM THE CASES COMMISA V. PEMEX AND KBR V. MÉXICO

Gabriel Cavazos
Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey