The Mexican State and Diplomatic Law

In his essay, Portilla Gómez analyzes the standpoint of the Mexican State, in its capacity as a member of international society, vis-à-vis diplomatic law, which is defined as the set of activities conducted by states during the course of their official relations with one another, in accordance with the tenets of international law and protocol. The author discusses the evolution of this branch of international law, from the first general agreements on multilateral diplomatic relations adopted on March 1815 in Vienna. The code of regulations resulting from these agreements allowed for the establishment of diplomatic categories, rules of origin and key protocol issues that were not redefined and updated until 1961 with the signing of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which remains in force today. In the second part of his essay, Portilla Gómez describes how Mexico enforces diplomatic law, selecting several examples that illustrate the degree of consistency between legislation and practice in our country and the provisions of the Vienna Convention, based on our twofold condition as a state that both exercises and is subject to diplomatic law. He concludes by stating that, in order for Mexico to improve its performance in this area, we first need to bring our legislative and administrative instruments into line and define immunity criteria by passing a law that specifically addresses this issue.