Oxford dictionary defines ‘bestiary’ as ‘a descriptive or anecdotal treatise on various real or mythical kinds of animals, especially a medieval work with a moralizing tone.’ The present endeavour puts in detail the quintessential characteristics of Mexican public contracts and the laws that allow arbitration. Certainly, the complexity and the risks of the current legal framework surrounding public arbitrations in Mexico invite us to evoke mythical creatures and assimilate them with the legal regime.
The relationship of state contracts and arbitration has not undertaken a straightforward path. The possibility to keep aside matters from arbitration endangers the survivability of the system. Although alternative means of dispute resolution have only appeared two decades ago, major infrastructure projects are marked by the presence of these real and mythical kinds of arbitration. The most mythical arbitration of all, in Mexico to this date, is the COMMISA vs PEMEX case that lasted more than a decade. The odyssey continues to write battles with the Mexican State as respondent in many different fora, and it embodies the red dragon indicated in the Book of Revelation.
Bestiary of Mexican State Contracts: Treatise on Various Real and Mythical kinds of Arbitration
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