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[p194]
The President of the International Court of Justice,
having regard to Articles 40 and 48 of the Statute of the Court,
having regard to Articles 30 and 37 of the Rules of Court,
Whereas by a letter of November 26th, 1957, received in the Registry on
November 27th, the Minister for Foreign Affairs a.i. of the Netherlands
transmitted to the Registry a certified true copy of a Special Agreement
concluded between the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium and the
Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and signed at The Hague on
March 7th, 1957, by which the Court is requested to determine whether the
sovereignty over the parcels of land shown in the survey and known from 1836
to 1843 as Nos. 91 and 92, Section A, Zondereygen, belongs to the Kingdom of
Belgium or the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
Whereas the Minister for Foreign Affairs a.;. of the Netherlands also
attached to his letter a certified true copy of the Certificate of the
exchange of instruments of ratification of the Special Agreement which took
place at Brussels on November 19th, 1957;
Whereas, by his said letter, the Minister for Foreign Affairs a.i. of the
Netherlands stated that Mr. W. Riphagen, Legal Adviser [p195] to the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, had been appointed as Agent for the Government
of the Netherlands for the purposes of this case;
Whereas Article III of the Special Agreement provides that it shall be
notified to the Court by the Kingdom of the Netherlands;
Whereas, by a letter of November 28th, 1957, the Government of the Kingdom
of Belgium was duly informed of the notification to the Registry of the
Special Agreement;
Whereas, by a letter of December 5th, 1957, the Belgian Ambassador to the
Netherlands notified the Court of the appointment by his Government of M. Y.
Devadder, Legal Adviser to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as its Agent
for the purposes of this case;
Whereas Article II of the Special Agreement recites the agreement of the
Parties that, without prejudice to any question as to the burden of proof
and having regard to Article 37 of the Rules of Court, the written
proceedings should consist of
(1) a Memorial of the Kingdom of Belgium to be submitted to the Court within
three months of the notification of the Agreement ;
(2) a Counter-Memorial of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to be submitted
within three months of delivery of the Memorial of the Kingdom of Belgium;
(3) a Reply of the Kingdom of Belgium followed by a Rejoinder of the Kingdom
of the Netherlands to be delivered within such times as the Court may order;
Whereas there is no objection to taking this agreement into account;
Fixes February 27th, 1958, as the time-limit for the filing of the Memorial
of the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, and May 29th, 1958, as the
time-limit for the filing of the Counter-Memorial of the Government of the
Kingdom of the Netherlands;
And reserves the subsequent procedure for further decision.
Done in French and English, the French text being authoritative, at the
Peace Palace, The Hague, this twelfth day of December, one thousand nine
hundred and fifty-seven, in three copies, one of which will be placed in the
archives of the Court and the others transmitted to the Government of the
Kingdom of Belgium and to the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,
respectively.
(Signed) Green H. Hackworth,
President.
(Signed) J. López Oliván,
Registrar. |
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