The judicial overhaul would place judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and police investigators under greater public scrutiny than before, said Miguel Carbonell, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
"This will reduce corruption in the criminal justice system by requiring more professionalism of everyone involved," Carbonell said.
But Carbonell and other legal scholars opposed a key provision of the package that allows authorities to use "restriction orders" to detain witnesses and suspects without filing charges.
Mexican prosecutors routinely issue such orders, known as arraigos in Spanish. Their use has been challenged in courts. But the bill approved Thursday would give prosecutors the constitutional authority to hold anyone for up to 80 days in cases involving organized crime.
"We think putting arraigos into the constitution is a restriction of liberty that violates the presumption of innocence," Carbonell said.
The restriction orders were passionately opposed by several senators during the final debate. One senator called it a form of legalized kidnapping.
"Senators, be careful, because any of you, or any of your children, could fall into this terrible space called arraigo," Sen. Rosario Ibarra said.
But supporters of the law said restriction orders were an essential tool in the fight against the powerful drug traffickers who have ravaged many Mexican cities and towns.
The law also would grant police the power to wiretap telephone conversations as long as a judge issues a warrant. It also would allow private individuals to record private conversations and allow such recordings to be entered as evidence at trial.
Legislators of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party successfully opposed a provision that would have given police the power to enter homes without a judge's warrant when police are in hot pursuit of suspects or when a victim's life is in danger.
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hector.tobar@latimes.com
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Cecilia Sanchez of The Times' Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.
