Law 553 of 2026, published in Official Gazette No. 30624 of October 1, 2026, amends the Judicial Code and issues other provisions. It originates in Bill 229 of 2025, whose lead sponsor is Deputy Patsy Cristina Lee Rentería, from circuit 13-4 in Panama Oeste (Partido Popular), joined by Deputies Eduardo Alejandro Gaitán Beitía, Lenín Alberto Ulate Rodríguez, Janine Prado Castaño, Yamireliz Daymirelkis Chong Smith, Yarelis Anayansi Rodríguez Batista, Jorge Isaac Bloise Iglesias, Miguel Ángel Campos Lima and Roberto José Federico Zúñiga Alvarado. Approved on third debate on September 16, 2026 and signed into law by President José Raúl Mulino Quintero on September 29, 2026, the bill had been objected to by the Executive Branch in April 2026 before its final approval.

The Law amends articles 65, 66, 67, 118, 148, 150 and 167 of the Judicial Code and article 21 of Law 119 of 2013 (article 10). Its focus is the province of Panama Oeste: article 148 establishes a judicial circuit made up of the districts of Arraiján, La Chorrera, Capira, Chame and San Carlos, and article 8 expressly names it the Panama Oeste Judicial Circuit. Article 150 sets its seat in La Chorrera, and article 66 places Panama Oeste within the First Judicial District, alongside Panama, Colón, Darién and the Gunayala comarca. According to the first-debate report on Bill 229, the change is mainly one of nomenclature, that is, aligning the circuit's name with the creation of Panama Oeste as the country's tenth province, and does not alter the structure of the courts.

Article 9 provides that, in any prior judicial document referring to the «Third Judicial Circuit of Panama» or to the districts of Arraiján, La Chorrera, Capira, Chame and San Carlos, the reference shall henceforth be understood as the Panama Oeste Judicial Circuit. Article 148 also details the number of judges per circuit, though it refers the number and distribution of Panama Oeste's courts to an accord of the Supreme Court of Justice.

For the litigants, businesses and residents of Panama Oeste, one of the country's fastest-growing provinces in residential, logistics and industrial terms, the measure gives clarity over the name and seat of the forum that hears their civil and criminal cases.

The effect is not immediate. Article 11 defers the Law's entry into force to six months after its promulgation, so it would take effect around April 2027. The actual staffing of judges and courts for the Panama Oeste Judicial Circuit depends on a later accord of the full Supreme Court of Justice (articles 148 and 167). The terms of the objection raised by the Executive Branch in April 2026 do not appear in the documents reviewed.

Nexo Capital will follow the entry into force of Law 553 and the Supreme Court of Justice accord that organizes the courts of the Panama Oeste Judicial Circuit.