3 7. As from the moment in which violations of protected human rights are found, the examination of the incompatibility of legal provisions of domestic law with the American Convention on Human Rights becomes, in my view, no longer an abstract question. A law can per se appear as incompatible with the Convention to the extent that, for instance, it inhibits the exercise of protected rights, even in the absence of a measure of application. A law can per se reveal itself incompatible with the Convention to the extent that, for example, it does not impose precise limits to the discretionary power conferred upon public authorities to interfere in the exercise of protected rights 9. A law can per se appear incompatible with the Convention to the extent that, for example, it renders difficult pending investigations, or raises obstructions in the judicial process, or allows the impunity of those responsible for the violations of human rights. 8. The challenging of the compatibility with the Convention of a law in force which per se creates a legal situation which affects the protected human rights is a concrete question. In my understanding, it is the existence of victims 10 that provides the decisive criterion for distinguishing the examination simply in abstracto of a legal provision, from the determination of the incompatibility of such provision with the American Convention on Human Rights in the framework of a concrete case, such as that of El Amparo. The existence of victims renders juridically inconsequential the distinction between the law and its application, in the context of a concrete case. 9. In the present Judgment on reparations, the decision of the Court to abstain itself from pronouncing on the incompatibility of Article 54(2) and (3) in force of the Code of Military Justice of Venezuela 11 with the American Convention on Human Rights (resolutory point n. 5) seeks to base itself (paragraphs 59-60) on an obiter dictum of its Advisory Opinion (on the International Responsibility for the Promulgation and Enforcement of Laws in Violation of the Convention, OC-14/94), of 09 December 1994, according to which “there is no provision in the Convention authorizing the Court, under its contentious jurisdiction, to determine whether a law that has not yet affected the guaranteed rights and freedoms of specific individuals is in violation of the Convention. 12” The Court fails to answer the prior question whether a law, by its own existence, affects, or can affect, the rights protected by the Convention. 9 European Court of Human Rights, Malone case, Judgment of 02.08.1984, paras. 67-68. A law that attributes such a discretionary power ought to indicate expressly the precise extent and limits of such power; European Court of Human Rights, Silver and Others case, Judgment of 25.03.1983, paras. 86-88. 10 In the present domain of protection, the victims of human rights violations occupy a central position; and as the contentieux of reparations and indemnities clearly discloses, it is the victims themselves - and not the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights - who are the true complainant party before the Court. This is what may be unequivocally understood from this Judgment and the public hearing of 27 January 1996 before the Court in the present case. 11 And military regulations and instructions. 12 Paragraph 49 of Advisory Opinion OC-14/94.