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The Court That Built the Advisory Opinion It Refused to Complete: OC-30/25 on Arms Trafficking, Corporate Immunity, and the Reach of Advisory Jurisdiction

March 26, 2026

Mexico’s effort to hold the gun industry to account has now encountered an institutional setback in San José. Its request for an advisory opinion raised six questions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR). This post examines, against a more expansive account of OC-30/25 offered here, whether laws granting public or private arms-industry companies procedural immunity against victims’ claims are compatible with Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention on Human Rights. In its 2025 advisory opinion on illicit firearms trafficking, publicly notified on 5 March 2026, the Court addresses the broader human rights implications of such trafficking, but does not answer that question directly. That omission is central to the opinion. It leaves unresolved whether victims can access a court and obtain a remedy when domestic law bars claims against companies related to the arms industry from the outset. The opinion develops much of the normative framework needed to answer that question, yet stops short of doing so.

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An Incomplete Yet Coherent Systemic Approach Within The Inter-American System: The Validity of the Act of Ratification of the ACHR Amidst a Dispute over a State’s International Representation

September 1, 2025

In the recent Inter-American Court of Human Rights judgment on Preliminary Objections of August 21, 2025, in the Case of Chirinos Salamanca et al. Vs. Venezuela, the Court dismissed the preliminary objection regarding the Court’s lack of jurisdiction ratione voluntatis and ratione temporis raised by the State of Venezuela. With significant implications for the Court’s…

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Maduro, Guaidó, and the Two-Government Paradox in Chirinos Salamanca v Venezuela

August 29, 2025

On 26 August 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) announced its judgment on preliminary objections in Chirinos Salamanca y otros vs. Venezuela, issued on 21 August 2025. Given the stakes, the decision was anxiously awaited. The core question was whether Venezuela, where serious human rights abuses have been documented for over a decade,…

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Effectiveness vs. Legitimacy of Governments at the IACtHR

August 7, 2025

In February 2025, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR; the Court) heard oral arguments in the case Chirinos Salamanca and others v. Venezuela. The case concerns 14 police officers that were charged with the murder of a journalist and then incarcerated and allegedly tortured in the infamous “Helicoide” prison in Caracas. The hearing, however, only focused…

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In defense of a human right to democracy: Reflections on the pending Advisory Opinion before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

July 11, 2025

On the 26th of March of this year the Secretariat of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (‘IACtHR’ or ‘the Court’) issued a press release communicating the request for an advisory opinion presented by the republic of Guatemala focused on democracy and its protection in the Inter-American human rights system. Throughout their filing, Guatemala explores the…

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