On June 13th, 2025, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation determined that the advisory opinions issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“ICHR”) have legal relevance and may be used by Mexican judges in their rulings, as long as their interpretation favors the individuals, even though they aren’t legally binding.

The Plenum´s justification is based on the premise that the ICHR should be considered as an interpretative authority, and that such advisory opinions can influence how rights and obligations derived from international law are interpreted and understood.

Furthermore, it considered that these advisory opinions can be incorporated as mandatory into national law through two mechanisms: (1) by international incorporation, if the ICHR uses them in its cases (judgments); and (2) by national incorporation, when the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation incorporates them as parts of its ratio decidendi (reasoning) in binding precedents, in accordance with the twelfth paragraph of article 94 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States.

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