norms of the international and domestic legal systems are in constant interaction, to the benefit of
the human beings who are protected.3
Based on the foregoing, I dissent with regard to the said fifteenth operative
paragraph, because the Court should have established the amount of the reparation for loss
of earnings based on its own jurisdiction and not by accepting the criteria of a domestic
court that serves other jurisdictional purposes. The fact that the Inter-American Court,
which has assumed jurisdiction in a case, agrees with a specific amount is insufficient
reason for it to forego determining the amount of a loss of potential earnings motu propio
and in keeping with the norms and practices of international human rights law, and for it to
endorse the decision of a court with jurisdiction in domestic matters that interprets and
applies norms other than the American Convention on Human Rights. The subsidiary nature
lies precisely in the empowerment of a new international jurisdiction, the inter-American
jurisdiction for the protection of human rights, and not in the adoption of the criteria of
another jurisdiction – the domestic jurisdiction – that ceased to exercise its functions when
the international jurisdiction was empowered. Consequently, the principle of subordination
was not clearly applied by the majority of the judges in the instant case.
Manuel E. Ventura Robles
Judge
Pablo Saavedra Alessandri
Secretary
3
Las Palmeras v. Colombia. Merits. Judgment of December 6, 2001. Series C No. 90. Joint separate opinion of
Judges A.A. Cançado Trindade and M. Pacheco Gómez, paras. 2 to 6.
3
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