5 for the State do not derive from the Agreement, but from the nature of the State’s obligations to comply with its international commitments. 18. The Agreement also contains an interpretive clause whereby the parties are granted the authority to interpret, by mutual agreement between them achieved through direct dialogue, the provisions of the Agreement, on the understanding that if a satisfactory solution cannot be found via that avenue, either of them may request from the Court the corresponding interpretation. The Agreement has been recognized in the judgment of the Court on reparations in the Barrios Altos Case. Therefore, the binding effect upon the parties does not derive from the Agreement itself, but from the judgment of the Court in which that Agreement is approved. The Court’s interpretation authority is given in the American Convention (Article 67). It does not emanate from a private agreement between parties. No such agreement could abolish that authority nor embellish it with modalities alien to the system established in the Convention and in the rules derived therefrom. Sergio García-Ramírez Judge Manuel E. Ventura-Robles Secretary