Day 1
Alvin C. Hathaway Jr.
West Virginia University College of Law, Rising 3L
May 18-19, 2008
Day 1
WVU College of Law students, faculty and friends in front of a centuries old cathedral in Guanajuato, Mexico
The bulk of the WVU Law School group arrived at Leon/Guanajuato International Airport on Sunday, May 18th at 5:30 PM Central Time (6:30 PM EST). After gathering our bags and making our way through Customs we headed off to the center of Guanajuato to find our hotel, Hotel Parador del Convento. On our way to the hotel we passed a brand new General Motors plant. The building was easily two football fields long, bright yellow with big tinted environmental friendly glass windows. Professor Friedberg said that this GM plant was courtesy of NAFTA. This was our first of many legal lessons & discussions to come. Monday, May 19th at noon we had our first lecture, Explaining Political Transition in Mexico, presented by Prof. Fernando Patron. Prof. Patron?s lecture provided an overview of the Mexican Constitution, noting that the Mexican Constitution has been amended 473 times (Compared to the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution). There has been 3 Mexican Constitutions (Constitution of 1824, Constitution of 1857, and the Constitution of 1917).
This issue sparked an intriguing discussion in our small group seminar that evening. One argument for the drastic difference of Mexico having three Constitutions versus the U.S. only having one could be attributed to the differences in the purpose that the constitutions serve. Mexico?s first constitution served the purpose of uniting Mexico as a country and dividing the country into 19 states. The second constitution dealt with civil rights, and the third dealt more with social rights. On the other hand the U.S. Constitution is a framework for how the government should operate, and it encompasses social rights, civil rights, and the three main branches of government. Marbury vs. Madison created judicial review in the U.S. which really is the power behind our constitution. Mexico has chosen to create a new written law for every issue that comes about, hence the 473 amendments to their Constitution. With the many changes to the law a lot of people become frustrated with the constant additions and modifications to the system. On top of this the average Mexican receives only 6.7 years of education of the Constitutionally required 10 years. Because of the lack of education and the many amendments to the Mexican Constitution, the average person is not aware of their rights and responsibilities.
In light of this issue, Prof. Patron presented the question, “What good is a Constitution if social inequality paralyzes a large portion of the citizenry”?
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Given the discussion in American politics over the effects of NAFTA, it is interesting to note that in Baltimore, Maryland; General Motors closed a plant that was making mini-vans against the many objections to retooling the plant to produce other vehicles. Clearly jobs have been swifted to Mexico with little benefit to the American consumer or worker. It is good that our American Law students are viewing first hand the effects of a bad trade deal.
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