Moral Damages Under The Civil Law Of Mexico - Are These Damages Equivalent To U.S. Punitive Damages, Vargas, Jorge A.

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ARTICLES MORAL DAMAGES UNDER THE CIVIL LAW OF MEXICO. Are These Damages Equivalent to
U.S. Punitive Damages?
JORGE A. VARGAS*
TABLE OF CONTENTS: I. INTRODUCTION.......................................

186

II.

CIVIL LIABILITY AND TORT LAW IN MEXICO ...........

A. Triad of Civil Liability Requirements ............
1. Commission of Illicit Acts ....................

189 192
193

2. The Causation of Damage ................... 3. Causal Relationship between the Illicit Act and the Resulting Damage ................... B. Mechanism to Quantify Damages and Lossesunder Mexican Law .............................. 1. How to Calculate Damages and Losses in Personal Injury Cases ....................... 2. Two Personal Injury Cases under Mexican L aw ..........................................
III. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF MORAL DAMAGES ...........

194 194 195 196 199
204

A. Two Types of "MoralReparations"in the Federal Civil Code of 1928............................... 204
* Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (since 1983). LL.B., summa cum laude, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City; LL.M. and J.S.D. (Candidate), Yale Law School. The author was a guest lecturer on Mexican law at New York University School of Law, International Global Program in 1999, and a Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School in1994. He is also the founder and Director of the Mexico-United States Law Institute, University of San Diego 1983-1987, and was awarded the academic distinction of University Professor 20022003 by the University of San Diego. I wish to express my personal thanks to Daniel B. Rodriguez, Dean and Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law for the generous Summer Research Award 2003granted for the preparation of this work. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to USD students Tate Lounsberry, (JD Class 2005), Andrea Williams (JD Class 2005), Marissa Bejarano (JD Class 2004) and Adriana Cordoba (Class of 2005) for their excellent research work and for the preparation of the charts. I verify the accuracy of the Spanish language cites and all English translations and maintaina web site on Mexican law located at www.mexlaw.com.

HeinOnline -- 35 U. Miami Inter-Am. L. Rev. 183 2003-2004

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1.

INTER-AMERICAN LAW REVIEW

[Vol. 35:2

Moral Reparation in the 1928 Civil Code .... 204

2. Moral Damages in the Civil Code of 1928 (Prior to the 1982 Amendment) .............. a. Moral Reparation, Mexico City, 1938 ..... b. Moral Reparation, 1942.................. c. Moral Reparation ........................ B. The 1982 Legislative Bill of PresidentDe la Madrid .......................................... 1. Legal Rationales ............................. 2. Text of the Proposed Amendment ............ 3. Discussion of the Proposed Amendment by Congress ..................................... 4. Final Text of the Amendments as Published in the D. 0. of December31, 1982 ........... 5. The Latest Amendments to the Civil Code in 1994 ......................................... 6. Spain's Organic Act of Civil Protection of 1982 .........................................
IV. MoRAL
DAMAGES IN THE MEXICAN DOCTRINE .........

206 207 207 208 209 209 211 212 214 216 217
223

A. Manuel Borja Soriano ........................... 223 1. Comments on Moral...