5 accepted the contentious jurisdiction of the Court on March 9, 1987. IV 15. In its brief of May 6, 1996, the State raised a single preliminary objection, which it characterized as: "INCOMPETENCE OF THE HONORABLE INTER-AMERICAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO HEAR THE INSTANT CASE" (capital letters in the original.) The arguments on which the State based that objection may be summarized as follows: a. That objection is based on the Guatemalan constitutional principle that judgments rendered by its Justice Tribunals, "which have the authority of a final judgment may only be subject to judicial review" by the Supreme Court of Justice and the other competent domestic courts and that "[n]o other authority may intervene in the administration of justice." b. It added that the case on which the application presented by the Commission is based was the subject of judgments of the courts of first and second instance and the court of judicial review, "in which the criminal charge against the accused was decided" and, consequently, the Court lacks the "jurisdictional powers to hear this Case, since it would necessarily involve the creation of a new jurisdictional instance." c. According to the State's brief, the Commission's application conflicts with Article 8(4) of the American Convention, which provides that an "accused person acquitted by a nonappealable judgment shall not be subjected to a new trial for the same cause," and Article 25(2)(c) of the Convention, which establishes that the State has the duty to guarantee enforcement of any decision in which a remedy is granted. It also considered that a review of the instant case by the Court would violate Articles 1, 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 16, 17 and 18 of the Charter of the Organization of American States with regard to the sovereignty of States and the legitimate independence and guarantee of the separation of powers and their proper exercise, and would contravene Resolutions 40/32 of November 29, 1985, and 40/146 of December 13, 1985, of the General Assembly of the United Nations on the basic principles relating to the independence of the Judiciary. d. In support of its position, the State cited the jurisprudence of the Court and the Reports of the Inter-American Commission to the effect that the mere fact that an investigation produced no satisfactory results does not per se imply a violation of the Convention. In the case referred to in the application, the State pointed out that "the competent organs acted at once and produced the evidence needed to set in motion the criminal process against the accused" and made its pronouncement. e. The State requested that the Court, in accordance with its jurisprudence and the aforementioned principles, deliver in due course an opinion on the objection interposed. 16. In its reply to Guatemala's brief on preliminary objections, the Commission made the observations summarized below by the Court: a. The objection raised by the State has no foundation in law. It considered that the arguments adduced by the State presuppose an evaluation of the merits of the application, and that the evidence presented in an attempt to affirm the efficacy of its judicial system and of the judgment rendered by the domestic courts in the case,