Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

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I. INTRODUCTION
I have had the privilege of working with Professor José María
Abascal on several projects; the last one being the drafting of the
most recent amendments to Mexico’s arbitration law. I am glad to
say that, while certain changes were made to our proposal during
the legislative process, a large part of our draft was accepted,
enacted, and published in the Federal Official Gazette (Diario
Oficial de la Federación) of January 27, 2011.
The amendments to Mexico’s arbitration law mainly regulate
the procedural aspects of judicial cooperation in arbitration. This
article analyzes the three principal issues addressed in the
amendments: (i) compelling arbitration; (ii) judicial cooperation
in non-contentious issues; and (iii) judicial cooperation in
contentious issues. As will be explained in this article, the
amendments are welcomed additions to Mexico’s arbitration law.
II. REFERRAL TO ARBITRATION
A. The Law Before the Amendments
Under § 1424 of the Commerce Code,1 a Judge could compel
parties to arbitration, however there were two common
problems: (i) the Judge could refer the parties at any stage of the
proceedings, even right before the final judgment was issued (a
power which could be abused); and (ii) no procedure was in place
in order to determine how a Judge was to decide whether an
arbitration agreement was null and void, inoperative or incapable
of being performed.