Protect them, protect us

This piece by a former US ambassador (Jeffrey Davidow) discusses a very topical issue.  At issue are the cases of 51 Mexican nationals who were arrested, tried and sentenced to death in the United States but were denied consular notification and access. Mexico sought a remedy for these U.S. breaches of the Vienna Convention at the International Court of Justice, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations and the international body that the United States and other Vienna Convention signatories had agreed would resolve such disputes. The United States was the first nation to invoke its jurisdiction related to the Vienna Convention, in a case filed against Iran during the 1980 hostage crisis. The court heard the case filed by Mexico and directed a modest remedy: a judicial proceeding in each of the cases to determine whether each defendant´s case was prejudiced by not having consular access. In 2004, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush attempted to enforce the court judgment by directing states to provide the required judicial review. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, in the Medellín vs. Texas decision issued last March (Jose Ernesto Medellin was put to death by the state of Texas on Tuesday night), held that although the United States is bound by international law to comply with the International Court of Justice decision, neither that decision nor President Bush´s directive is directly enforceable in domestic courts without action by Congress.

KJ