3. Appeal for cassation Case 2850-2001, “PIZZANI CON FISCO DE CHILE’ case, ruling of 15 April 2003. Victim: Juan Chamorro Arévalo, kidnapped and disappeared in the city of Concepción on 16 September 1973. The petitioner argued that there was no possibility of changing the membership of the Civil Chamber, and that consequently the outcome of these cases is thoroughly predictable: civil action will be declared out of order, because of the statute of limitations (prescripción), and the relatives of the victims will be denied reparation. The uniformity of the principles repeatedly espoused by the supreme tribunal of the Republic, the petitioner argues, has also affected the lower courts, both at first and second instance, which have adopted the same attitude in denying reparation to the relatives of the victims. The petitioner asked: "What is the point of waiting three, four, five or more years, which is the time these trials take from the beginning until the final judgment, if we already know that their outcome is a foregone conclusion?" 12. The petitioner complains that in all these rulings the courts have denied reparations, thereby violating the standards of international law, in general, and those of the American Convention, in particular, which require states to offer reparation for the human rights violations committed by their agents. The petitioner maintains that application of the civil law statute of limitations to the cases at hand is "extraordinarily erroneous, prejudicial to the interest of the victims, their relatives, and a violation of the international law of human rights". By applying these provisions that deny the right to reparations, the courts are thereby placing the State of Chile in a flagrant violation of the American Convention, since Article 2(1) this treaty requires states to adapt their internal legislation to the provisions of the Convention, something that has not occurred in this case. 13. On the basis of these facts and considerations, the petitioner asked to the Commission to admit the complaint and to declare that the judgments of the Chilean courts, in applying the civil law statute of limitations cases involving the violation of human rights, and, thereby, preventing just reparations to the relatives of the victims, have violated the commitments assumed by the Chilean State when it became a party to the American Convention, in particular, the rights enshrined in Articles 1(1), 2, 8 and 25 of that treaty. B. Position of the State 5