I. INTRODUCTION OF THE CASE AND THE CAUSE OF ACTION 1. The case submitted to the Court. – On June 20, 2018, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (hereinafter “the Inter-American Commission” or the “Commission”) submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court, pursuant to Articles 51 and 61 of the Convention, the case of Raúl Rolando Romero Feris against the Republic of Argentina (hereinafter, “the State” or “Argentina”). The controversy concerns the alleged illegal and arbitrary detention of Mr. Romero Feris (hereinafter also “the alleged victim”) in 1999. The Commission concluded that, during the criminal proceedings against Mr. Romero Feris, his defense counsel presented, on multiple occasions and by diverse recourses, a number of issues on the right to be judged by an independent, impartial and competent authority. The Commission claimed that the remedies were rejected with arguments that either invoked general references to the law or claims that they were matters that could not be examined by the respective judicial bodies and, thus, concluded that the State had infringed the rights to judicial guarantees and to judicial protection. 2. The following proceedings took place before the Commission: a. Petition. – On August 24, 2001, the Commission received a petition lodged against Argentina signed by Mariano Cuneo Libarona, Cristian Cuneo Libarona, José María Arrieta and Jorge Eduardo Alcántara, who were subsequently replaced by Luis Alberto Feris (hereinafter “the representative” or “the defense counsel”). b. Report on Admissibility. – On January 29, 2015, the Commission adopted its Report on Admissibility N° 4/15.1 c. Report on the Merits. – On July 5, 2017, the Commission, pursuant to Article 50 of the Convention, issued its Report on the Merits No. 73/17 (hereinafter also “Merits Report”), in which it arrived at a series of conclusions and formulated various recommendations2 to the State. d. Notification to the State. – The Merits Report was notified to the State on September 20, 2017, granting it a period of two months to report on compliance of the Report’s recommendations. As of the date of its adoption, the State had not presented its observations on the merits, despite having been granted three extensions of three months each. 3. Submission to the Court. – On June 20, 2018, the Commission submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court the totality of the facts and human rights violations described in its Merits Report “due to the necessity of obtaining justice and reparations for the victim in this case.” 4. Request of the Commission. – The Commission requested that the Court determine and declare the international responsibility of the State for violating the rights indicated in the In its Report, the Commission admitted the petition on the case of “Raúl Rolando Romero Feris,” regarding the alleged violation of the rights to personal liberty, judicial guarantees and judicial protection, set forth in Articles 7, 8, and 25 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 1(1) thereof. 1 It recommended that the State: (1) Fully repair the human rights violations declared in the Report on the Merits, both materially and immaterially; (2) Take the necessary measures to ensure the non-repetition of the violations declared in the Report on the Merits; in particular, adopt administrative or other measures to ensure strict compliance with the maximum legal term for pre-trial detention, as well as provide adequate grounds for ordering it by the judicial authorities, in the light of the standards developed in the Report on the Merits, and (3) ensure the availability of adequate and effective mechanisms to enable persons subjected to criminal proceedings to challenge, in a simple and rapid manner, the competence, independence and impartiality of the judicial authorities. 2 3