The responsibility of public administration in Mexico

Since 1 January 2004 the liability of the public administration has been established in Mexican law through a reform of article 113 paragraph 2 of the Mexican Constitution (now article 109 paragraph 6) following the example of Spanish law. This reform establishes an objective and direct responsibility: the Administration is directly responsible for the damages caused to the victims and not the public agent who was the only one responsible in the former private law regime of article 1927 of the Federal Civil Code (abrogated) where the Administration was indirectly and subsidiarily responsible for damages. However the current system of liability has been limited by the Mexican legislator only to irregular administrative activity. All of the above leads to a contradiction in the system due to the application of fault as the element generating liability (civil tradition) but also due to the imperfections of the integration of Spanish law in the reform of the Mexican Constitution.