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[p8]
The President of the International Court of Justice,
having regard to Article 48 of the Statute of the Court,
having regard to Article 37 of the Rules of Court,
having regard to the Order of November 9th, 1949, by which the
Acting-President of the Court fixed the time-limits for the presentation of
the documents of the written proceedings in the Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries
Case,
having regard to the Orders of March 29th and October 4th, 1950, by which
the Court extended the aforesaid time-limits;
Whereas, by letter of December 14th, 1950, the Agent of the Government of
Norway has requested the extension until April 30th, 1951, of the time-limit
for the presentation of the Rejoinder of the Government of Norway, which had
been fixed at January 31st, 1951, by the Order of October 4th, 1950;
Whereas, in said letter of December 14th, 1950, the Agent of the Government
of Norway recalls that, by letter of September 29th, 1950, he had agreed to
the extension of the time-limit fixed for the presentation of the Reply of
the Government of the United Kingdom, while reserving the right, after
having studied said Reply, to ask for an extension of the time-limit fixed
for the presentation of the Rejoinder of the Government of Norway;
Whereas, in said letter of December 14th, 1950, the Agent of the Government
of Norway puts forward various arguments in favour of his request;
Whereas the request of the Agent of the Government of Norway was
communicated to the Agent of the Government of the United Kingdom by letter
of December 18th, 1950, and whereas this [p9] Agent, by letter of January
4th, 1951, has stated various considerations which have led him to oppose
the request, while adding that he would not oppose an extension of one month
or six weeks;
Whereas the case is of such a nature that the decision may affect in a
lasting way the territorial status of Norway and, if it should be recognized
that a temporary obstacle has been wrongly put to the exercise of their
rights by British fishermen, may give rise to redress by means of reparation
for the damage caused;
Whereas in similar cases, affecting the territorial status of States,
time-limits comparable to the one now requested have sometimes been granted;
Whereas the volume of the Reply submitted by the United Kingdom, the
importance of the charts annexed thereto and the commentaries on those
charts in said Reply must be taken into consider-ation;
Whereas a reduction of the extension requested, to meet the wish of the
Government of the United Kingdom to see the case decided before the
beginning of the next fishing season, would not assure this result because
there are other cases now pending before the Court which must be heard first
and, secondly, because a risk would then arise of gaps in the written
proceedings, which would result in the protraction of oral arguments, when
it is desirable, on the contrary, to have those arguments restricted to what
will seem essential to the statement of the claim and of the defence,
without reverting to what should previously have been made sufficiently
clear in the written proceedings,
Decides
to extend until April 30th, 1951, the time-limit fixed by the Order of
October 4th, 1950, for the presentation of the Rejoinder of the Government
of Norway.
Done in English and French, the French text being authoritative, at the
Peace Palace, The Hague, this tenth day of January, one thousand nine
hundred and fifty-one, in three copies, one of which will be placed in the
archives of the Court, and the others transmitted to the Government of the
United Kingdom and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, respectively.
(Signed) Basdevant,
President.
(Signed) E. Hambro,
Registrar. |
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