Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (México V. United States of America), 2003 and Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 31 March 2004 in the Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mexico V. United States of America), 2008

Abstract

Between 1998 and 2008, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) heard a trio of cases on the application of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR), in the context of the arrest, trial and sentencing of foreign nationals by the U.S.: the Breard case brought in 1998 by Paraguay, the LaGrand case brought in 1999 by Germany, and the Avena case brought in 2003 by Mexico.

The Avena case presented the ICJ with the opportunity to clarify and expand on points of law that it had previously made in the LaGrand case. But, unlike the LaGrand case, it unleashed a torrent of litigation in the U.S., resulting in rulings by the U. S. Supreme Court that redefined the way the U.S. incorporates its international legal obligations into its domestic legal system.