This report builds on five interviews with individuals, who are acquainted with the Mexican judiciary in diverse ways. These participants gave me varying perspectives within the court system (as a judge, as a judicial clerk behind the bench, as an electoral commissioner, as a lawyer, and as a researcher); experience with different court systems (federal and local); across subject areas (constitutional law, labor law, election law, administrative law, and human rights law); and from different aspects of the judicial selection process (as a potential applicant, judicial examiner/trainer, a member of the bar, and a sitting judge).

The following sections summarize the interviewees’ perceptions of the level of competence in the Mexican judiciary, the quality of training before and during judicial service, the vetting process and selection of judges and justices, and the role of performance evaluations on fellow members of the judiciary.