UAEM removes agrarian law from curriculum as Morelos faces shortage of specialists

Morelos is facing a shortage of lawyers trained in agrarian law after the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos removed the subject from its compulsory curriculum.

The university replaced Agrarian Law with Agrifood Law in 2020. Ricardo Tapia Vega, director of the university’s Faculty of Law, said the change left too few qualified litigators to handle disputes across the state’s 232 agrarian communities.

More than 70% of Morelos land operates under ejidal or communal regimes, Tapia said. Nationally, agrarian land accounts for more than half of Mexico’s territory. He argued that Agrarian Law should return as a required part of legal training rather than remain an elective.

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The elimination of the subject created a shortage of litigators trained to handle disputes in the 232 agrarian communities across the state.

The faculty plans to submit a curriculum reform proposal to the university’s technical and university councils. To address the immediate shortage, the university and the Association of Agrarian Lawyers of Morelos will launch an intensive diploma course on September 18, as a step toward creating a new specialization.

Representatives at a news conference acknowledged that many lawyers appear before agrarian courts without necessarily having the expertise needed for these cases. Katia Isabel Herrera of the Agrarian Prosecutor’s Office in Morelos said institutional capacity remains inadequate. The state’s two agrarian courts have only two court-appointed agrarian lawyers each, creating a significant backlog of cases.

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The institutional capacity is insufficient in relation to demand.