Recent Case Decision - Requirements for the Operation of Supplemental Laws

Recently, the Second Chamber of Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación or SCJN) approved judicial decision number 2a. /J. 34/2013 (10a.) under the heading, "Supplementary Laws. Requirements for Their Operation." In such case decision, the Second Chamber of the SCJN held that the use of supplementary laws may be proper to satisfy an omission in the law or to interpret its provisions and integrate such with other rules or general rules of principles contained in other laws. Based on the forgoing, the court held that in order for such a supplementary law to apply, the following is necessary: (i) that the law serving to supplement another law expressly establishes such possibility, indicating the law or norms that may be applied to such on a supplementary basis, or that a law establishes the supplementary application, fully or partially, to other laws; (ii) that the law being supplemented does not contemplate the legal concept or situations to which the supplementary law will apply or, if such are contemplated, the law being supplemented does not develop such or regulates such in a deficient manner; (iii) that the omission or legislative gap makes necessary the supplementary application of the law in order to resolve a pending legal issue, without addressing other legal issues that lawmakers did not intend to establish in the law being supplemented; (iv) that the applicable norms being applied on a supplementary basis would not run contrary to the underlying law such is supplementing, and only as long as such is consistent with its principle and the basis that specifically govern the issue in question. The above case decision is currently pending publication in the Weekly Federal Court Gazette.