Currently, the Mexican legal system is incompatible with the establishment of an international criminal jurisdiction.

The international community does not yet have experience in the establishment of permanent international criminal courts.

Rather, they present the views of the United States on some of the more important initial questions which have been identified thus far.

Until now, it has been an internationally accepted general rule that the criminal courts of States are the normal and natural bodies with jurisdiction to try individuals who commit crimes.

The retroactive application of law, the question of whether statutory limitations should, in fact, apply to crimes deemed to be of an international character, as has been the case, up to now, under the legal systems of many countries, and the notion of permitting double jeopardy are some of the sensitive issues which must be clarified before further steps are taken towards the establishment of a court.

For example, the draft Code seeks to establish the non applicability of statutory limitations to international crimes, whereas the majority of national codes have so far provided for such limitations it also envisages referring to other bodies of law in connection with such sensitive issues as penalties, when, in fact, penalties constitute an essential element of these types of norms.