JOINT CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGES CANÇADO TRINDADE AND JACKMAN We have voted in favour of operative paragraph 3 of the present Judgment, but we feel obliged to place on record our understanding of the scope of Article 8(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights as considered by the Court in the circumstances of the present case Loayza Tamayo. On the ground that the Peruvian military tribunals found Ms. María Elena Loayza-Tamayo not guilty of the charges brought against her, the Court has deemed it unnecessary to make a pronouncement on the argument raised by the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights to the effect that these tribunals lack the independence and impartiality that is required by Article 8(1) of the Convention. While it is true that, in the present case, those tribunals did absolve Ms. Loayza-Tamayo, we are of the opinion that special military tribunals composed of military personnel appointed by the Executive Power and subject to the dictates of military discipline, assuming a function which belongs to the Judicial Power, endowed with jurisdiction to judge not only the military but civilians as well, and - as in the present case - rendering judgments for which no reasons are given, do not meet the standards of independence and impartiality imposed by Article 8(1) of the American Convention, as an essential element of the concept of due process. Antônio A. Cançado Trindade Judge Oliver Jackman Judge Manuel E. Ventura-Robles Secretary