The Inter-American Juridical Committee (CJI) held its 97th regular session on 3-7 August 2020

On this occasion, the CJI concluded the study of two topics with the approval of two resolutions accompanied by their respective reports, namely, "Binding and Non-binding Agreements" and "International Law and State Cyber Operations". Said documents will be forwarded to the OAS political bodies in the coming days and will later be published on the CJI website, at which time they will be disseminated through an information bulletin.

Furthermore, the CJI examined the themes related to a) the protection of personal data, b) the validity of foreign judicial decisions in light of the Inter-American Convention on Extraterritorial Validity of Foreign Arbitral Sentences and Awards and c) electoral fraud as an international crime of the inter-American system, all issues on which this Organ is working for the purpose of drawing up concrete proposals.

The CJI will continue to analyze these and other topics that belong to its agenda for the next regular session scheduled for the month of March next yr.

Due to the completion of their mandates on the 31st December of this year, the CJI took the opportunity to pay tribute to three of its members, as well as to extend their appreciation for their contributions to the work of the CJI. The members in question are Doctors Duncan Hollis (United States), Alix Richard (Haiti) and Íñigo Salvador Crespo (Ecuador).

The CJI also thanked Dr. Ruth Correa Palacio (Colombia) by adopting a resolution for her having acted as Chair for the past two years. In effect, during this session the CJI appointed new authorities, namely, Dr. Luis García-Corrochano (Peru) as Chair, and Dr. José Moreno (Paraguay) as vice-Chair.

The CJI also decided to re-schedule the Joint Meeting with Legal Representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs to its August 2021 session.

This is the first time that the CJI has held its session in virtual fashion due to the covid-19 pandemic that affects not only the region but also the entire world. Precisely in these circumstances, the CJI emphasized the role of codification and the progressive development of international law for cooperating with and strengthening key legal institutions in order to counter the impacts of the pandemic. In this sense, the CJI stressed that many of the topics on its current agenda, together with those recently completed, gain special relevance for fulfilling this purpose and reaffirmed its commitment to continue working under this focus in the future wherever appropriate.