Vicente Ugalde – Courts mobilization and urban governance in Mexico City. 02.04.2026, 5:00pm-7:00pm CET

12 March 2026

Courts mobilization and urban governance in Mexico City

Although the relationship between legal mechanisms and urban experience has attracted the attention of American scholars for several decades (Revell, 2003; Valverde, 2009, 2022), much of this research has been produced outside the field of urban studies (Valverde, 2003). Within the framework of research on the functioning of urban regulation in Mexico City, this paper examines how the mobilization of the courts, in relation to such regulation, can shape urban development.

This interaction has also attracted the attention of scholars working on Latin American cities. In their analysis of the scope of legal action in urban planning decisions in Bogotá, Colombia, Sotomayor, Montero & Angel-Cabo (2023) examine whether discourses, actors, and legal mechanisms are transforming the governance, practice, and politics of urban planning in that city.

Building on these concerns, this paper seeks to examine these dynamics in the case of Mexico City. To do so, we first document judicial activity related to urban planning regulations and assess the consequences of these interactions for the governance, practice, and politics of urban planning in the city.

After clarifying the conceptual framework through which legal mobilization is understood in this study, the second section presents an overview of the most recent developments in the judicialization of urban planning in Mexico City.

Sotomayor, L., Montero, S. & Ángel-Cabo, N. (2023). Mobilizing legal expertise in and against cities: urban planning amidst increased legal action in Bogotá. Urban Geography, 44(3), 447-469.
Valverde, M. (2022). Urban legal forms and practices of Citizenship. In A. Amin & M. Lancione (Eds.), Grammars of the Urban Ground (pp. 108–125). Duke University Press.
Valverde, M. (2009), Laws of the Street. City & Society, 21: 163-181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-744X.2009.01020.x
Police science, British style: Pub licensing and knowledges of urban disorder. Economy and Society 43(2):234–253.

Speaker: Vicente Ugalde, Center for Demographic, Urban and Environmental Studies (CEDUA), El Colegio de México

Vicente Ugalde holds an M.A. in Urban Studies (2000) from El Colegio de México and a Ph.D. in Law (2006) from Université Panthéon-Assas. He is currently a Research Professor at the Centre for Demographic, Urban, and Environmental Studies at El Colegio de México, where he teaches courses on Urban Policies and Governance. He has been a visiting researcher at several international institutions, including CEE Sciences Po (Paris), Université de Montréal, and CITERES at Université de Tours. His primary research focuses on environmental policy in Mexico, with particular attention to hazardous waste regulation and urban environmental policies. More recently, Professor Ugalde’s work has expanded in two directions: first, toward the sociology of legal processes, with an emphasis on legal decision-making in the regulation of urban and environmental issues; and second, toward a comparative study of governance modes and urban development in major cities such as Paris, London, São Paulo, and Mexico City. He has also contributed to academic publishing, serving on the editorial boards of Revista Espacialidades (2014–2022), Revista Administración Pública (2009–2011), CIESAS (2015–2017), and El Colegio de México (2019-2025).

Discussant: Carlo Colombo, Assistant Professor, Maastricht University

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