THE HAGUE. ICJ RULES US MUST REVIEW CASES OF 51 MEXICANS ON DEATH ROW

"The United States of America shall provide, by means of its own choosing, review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence," presiding judge Shi Jiuyong of China said in a summary of the judgement.
The court ruled that Washington had violated international law by not informing the Mexican nationals that they were entitled to consular assistance or legal help from their government as it is obligated to do under the 1963 Vienna Convention. Lawyers for Mexico hailed the decision as "a triumph for international law". "If the US follows the mandate of the court it will lead to new trials and new sentences," attorney Sandra Babcock told a press conference.
Mexican President Vicente Fox said the verdict showed Mexico had been right in moving to defend its citizens. "We rejoice at the resolution from the ICJ which showed that Mexico is correct on human rights," he said.
Washington responded saying that it wanted to carefully study the ruling. "We received it this morning," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. "It´s 61 pages long. It´s a very complex ruling ... We´re going to study it carefully ... and we´ll decide, based on studying it, how we can go about implementing it." "I think the court recognized that we would make efforts and we have made efforts to improve our record of compliance with the Vienna convention," said the spokesman, noting that was something "we are serious about."
In an unusual move, judges at the ICJ, the United Nations´ highest judiciary body, expressly said that their ruling concerned the general application of the Vienna Convention and also applied to "other foreign nationals finding themselves in similar situations in the United States". Mexico filed its complaint against Washington in January last year. Lawyers for Mexico had argued that foreign prisoners, who do not always speak or understand English or the US legal system, at a disadvantage when they are put on trial without consular assistance. In February 2003 the court ordered a temporary stay of execution for three of the Mexicans, whose executions were imminent. The court ruled that the United States had violated the rights of Mexican prisoners in 51 cases and ordered Washington to review those cases. The 51 Mexicans the decision applies to are scattered across at least half a dozen US states and it is unclear what form the reviews will take. In three cases the convicted men have exhausted all appeals and special measures will have to be taken to get the cases reviewed again.
"The court said in unambiguous terms that review and reconsideration should be carried out through the judicial system and should apply both to the conviction and the sentence," Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo, Mexico´s alternate ambassador to the UN said. US representatives in The Hague said the full text of the judgement had to be studied by the appropriate authorities in the United States before they would comment in depth.
The ICJ or World Court, was established after World War II to rule in disputes between states. Its decisions are final and cannot be appealed.