Compliance with ICJ Provisional Measure and the Meaning of Review and Reconsideration Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations: Avena and Other Mexican Nationals (Mex. V. U.S.)

Many aspects of the Avena case could lead to significant developments, there are two that will be addressed in this essay. The first issue has an immediate impact on the pending executions. What must the United States do to comply with the provisional measures order? What are “all measures necessary”? The second issue will have an impact in later litigation in the cases of the fifty-two Mexican defendants named in Avena and on other future defendants. What must the United States do to provide “review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence by taking account of the violation of the rights set forth in [the VCCR]”? Must there be a “meaningful remedy at law” as Mexico is requesting? Is clemency sufficient to satisfy these requirements for consideration of the consular notification issue, as the United States is arguing?