Accountability of Public Officials in Ancient Mexico

Liability of Public Officials

1. Prerequisites for the Position

A preventive control mechanism for rotating administration officials and judges was the selection of who should administer justice.

These people were chosen from the noble and rich, with experience in times of war and conquest, of good character, raised in the Calmecac, prudent and wise, and also the servants at the palace.

A good senator is a righteous judge who hears both sides, weighs the cause of each, gives to each what belongs, and does justice always right. They are not swayed by people and do justice without passion. Thus, we can see that codes of ethics were very real.

2. Remuneration

The king remunerated judges with certain amounts of cash and food, and the right to certain lands related to their job, where they performed agriculture to sustain their families.

Mayehues existed in these lands. They were people who took care of crops and provided water and firewood to the houses of the judges.

Officials were free of charge, and the tlatoani was responsible for their food and accommodation, receiving goods and easements from people depending on the quality and position of each.

3. Responsibilities and Sanctions

The continued presence in the courts, from the beginning of the day until the evening, was another way to avoid corruption of judges, coupled with death sentences against transgressors of justice, the timeliness of their implementation, and monitoring by the sovereign, exercised through regular meetings with such officials, who had to account for pending litigation.

The boards that met every 20 days in the presence of the sovereign, and particularly the general assembly of all judges every 80 days, determined the backlog, to forestall the serious evils caused by the slowness of trials. The judges communicated faster with their peers.

With reference to expressive control, if officials did not perform their duties, were intoxicated, or received bribes, their colleagues admonished them. If they relapsed, they were deprived of office and shorn, which was a great shame.

Quiet dismissal or death was imposed equally depending on the severity of the case, to punish the exercise of judicial functions outside the precincts. Former teachers, to this end, gave the tlatoani respect to the case and the sentence.

The control mechanisms that Mexico had amazed the Spanish conquerors, and the degree of them was an example for Hispanic judges.