The Need to Remove the Civil Code from Mexican Commercial Laws: the Case of “Offers” and “Firm Promises”

Abstract

In 1889, then Mexican President Porfirio Díaz enacted the Mexican Commercial Code that is still in force today. This code was inspired on the Napoleonic code of 1807. Unfortunately, the Mexican code eliminated the use of commercial customs and practices as an accepted method for breaching gaps in commercial law. Since then, Mexican commercial law has held the civil code as the basis for dealing with gaps and loopholes in the application of commercial law. This has prevented the further development of Mexican commercial law as it is forced to use institutions and doctrines that were not designed to deal with rapidly changing commercial issues. Mexican commercial law would benefit from the reincorporation of commercial customs and practices as a basis to fill in the gaps in the law.