On April 17, 2008 Mexico published a Decree amending article 80 of the Agrarian Law (Ley Agraria). Such amendment, although seeking to provide greaterpredictability, actually adds a slight complication to the procedure for transferring communal property (Ejido) rights between ejido community members(ejidatarios). New aspects of the amendment include: (i) consent for the assignment must be ratified before a notary public; (ii) spouses, common law spouses andchildren must be notified in writing of transfers of ejido rights and any waiver of first refusal rights by spouses, common law partners and children must be inwriting and registered in the National Agrarian Registry (Registro Agrario Nacional); and (iii) a requirement to give notice to the ejido commission of any suchtransfer. The reform provides a bit more formalities to the ejido property transfer of process, thus essentially formalizing decisions already made by Mexicancourts. The negative aspect of the new reform is the lack of legal security related to notification of spouses, common law partners, and children, who on frequentoccasions may not be easily found, whether working in the United States or having moved elsewhere, thus making it very difficult to comply with legalrequirements for an ejido transfer and adding another formality that may be difficult to comply with.
