As one may imagine, rules and regulations in different countries are different. Rules change even in the various countries and sections of countries. Therefore, one could take any two or three countries and compare and maybe even contrast the likenesses and vast differences. However, here, Mexico and the United States of America (USA) will be examined. As many people would probably already guess, especially attorneys, the United States legal system and the Mexican legal system has a great number of differences. The common law system is what the US legal system is all about; whereas, the civil law system is what Mexico is all about, says Mexican lawyer Diego Ruiz Durán. In the common system in the United States the collected judicial opinions are pondered to be binding legal authority. The judicial opinions are published and collected. In the civil system in Mexico, the primary importance is codified rules and regulations.

Published judicial opinions versus regulations enacted by a legislative body or codified rules is what the U.S. and Mexican systems is about. The United States legal system is heavily influenced and grown basically from the English legal tradition. In the United States regulations, codes and statues exist at the various levels of federal, state, and local, although the United States itself is a common jurisdiction. The sole source of authority is not just published judicial opinions, in actuality, codified regulations are the center of litigation or legal action. This fact would be a similarity to the Mexican legal system and their attorneys as they usually look to the code first. It is not uncommon for them to research and look to scholarly treaties and or decisions of high courts in preparation for representing a client on certain legal matters.

The educational systems are different as in the United States of America (USA), a student must first get an undergraduate degree or what is known as a bachelor’s degree in any topic of one’s choice from a university or college. Then, comes 3 years of programs at a law school to get a Juris Doctor or J.D. degree. Upon graduating the programs, they must pass the bar exam which is a required exam to actually become a licensed practicing attorney. In Mexican system one can get a litigation degree or LED (Licenciatura En Derecho) after an undergraduate program of 5 years and there is no bar exam to take upon graduating. After this, they can simply register as a LED or litigation degree graduate and become a licensed practicing attorney. In the U.S. it is the role of the attorneys or lawyers of the defendant or plaintiff to investigate and discover facts and handle all aspects and tasks to build a case to defend or prosecute depending on what side they are representing. In Mexican legal system, Diego Ruiz Durán is leading and regulating of the legal action or litigation is done by the judge who investigates the facts, examines witnesses and even does the appointing of the experts. The judge is the primary figure.