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III. The International Court of Justice
3. THE PROCEDURE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
3.10. Provisional Measures
3.10.1. General Questions

¤ Case Concerning Avena and other Mexican Nationals
(Mexico v. United States of America)
Request for the Indication of Provisional Measure
Order of 5 February 2003

52. Whereas, however, Mexico argues that 54 of its nationals have been sentenced to death following proceedings that allegedly violated the obligations incumbent on the United States under Article 36, paragraph 1 (b), of the Vienna Convention; whereas Mexico provides a list of those nationals and some information relating to their respective cases; whereas it adds that three of them have had their sentences commuted; whereas at the oral proceedings its Agent requested that the United States be ordered “to refrain from fixing any date for execution and from carrying out any execution in the case of the 51 Mexican nationals covered by the Application, until the Court has been able to decide on the merits of the case”;

53. Whereas the United States argues that no execution date has been scheduled with respect to any of the Mexican nationals concerned (see paragraph 31 above); whereas it points out that this is so both for the three individuals specifically named in its request for the indication of provisional measures and in regard to the others; whereas it observes that, in the case of these latter, “any execution date is even more remote”; and whereas it accordingly concludes that the request for the indication of provisional measures is thus premature;

54. Whereas “the sound administration of justice requires that a request for the indication of provisional measures founded on Article 73 of the Rules of Court be submitted in good time” LaGrand (Germany v. United States of America), Provisional Measures, Order of 3 March 1999, I.C.J. Reports 1999 (I), p. 14, para. 19); whereas, moreover, the Supreme Court of the United States observed, when considering a petition seeking the enforcement of an Order of this Court, that: “It is unfortunate that this matter came before us while proceedings are pending before the ICJ that might have been brought to that court earlier” (Breard v. Greene, 523 US 371, 378 (1998)); whereas, in view of the rules and time-limits governing the granting of clemency and the fixing of execution dates in a number of the states of the United States, the fact that no such dates have been fixed in any of the cases before the Court is not per se a circumstance that should preclude the Court from indicating provisional measures;

55. Whereas it is apparent from the information before the Court in this case that three Mexican nationals, Messrs. César Roberto Fierro Reyna, Roberto Moreno Ramos and Osvaldo Torres Aguilera, are at risk of execution in the coming months, or possibly even weeks; whereas their execution would cause irreparable prejudice to any rights that may subsequently be adjudged by the Court to belong to Mexico; and whereas the Court accordingly concludes that the circumstances require that it indicate provisional measures to preserve those rights, as Article 41 of its Statute provides;

56. Whereas the other individuals listed in Mexico’s Application, although currently on death row, are not in the same position as the three persons identified in the preceding paragraph of this Order; whereas the Court may, if appropriate, indicate provisional measures under Article 41 of the Statute in respect of those individuals before it renders final judgment in this case;