Guidelines for Understanding, Adjudicating, and Resolving Disputes in Elections This chapter brings together two different examples of training election adjudication bodies. First, the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary in Mexico shares its unique experiences, describing both its own history and the approaches it uses when it designs and implements training for electoral complaints adjudication bodies in other countries. The Mexican Court has been invited to develop judicial training programs throughout the world due to its pioneering work in independent electoral tribunals. In the second part of the chapter, Libertás, a prominent association of lawyers in the Philippines, shares its experience coordinating electoral complaints adjudication training for the 2010 Philippine elections.1 This was Libertás’ first experience with judicial training for elections, and the lessons learned in that process provide excellent insights into the importance of a welldesigned and implemented training program. Case 1: The Mexican Experience Background A. Evolution of Judicial Structures for the Adjudication of Election Complaints Over the past 20 years, the approach by which electoral complaints are settled in Mexico has shifted substantially from a predominantly political to a purely judicial system. In 1987, the first Electoral Tribunal (Tribunal de lo Contencioso Electoral, TRICOEL) in Mexico was created with the capacity to resolve electoral conflicts derived from federal elections for both chambers of Congress as well as the presidency. Nonetheless, Mexico maintained a mixed electoral justice system, in which the Court’s rulings could be amended by decisions made by the Electoral Colleges of both chambers of Congress. These institutions were, at the time, the only ones empowered to declare an election void. In 1990, the Federal Electoral Court (Tribunal Federal Electoral, TRIFE) was created as an autonomous judicial institution, but the mixed nature of the system remained. TRIFE’s decisions were subject to revision and Libertás (Lawyers League for Liberty) is an association of reform and civic-minded individuals committed to law and justice reform, democracy and human rights promotion, and the advocacy for good governance in the Philippines. 1 162