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[p.554]
The Vice-President of the International Court of Justice,
Having regard to Article 40 and Article 48 of the Statute of the Court and
to Article 13, paragraph 3, Article 44, and Article 46 of the Rules of
Court,
Whereas by a letter dated 19 July 1982, filed in the Registry of the Court
on 26 July 1982, the Secretary of the People's Committee for the People's
Foreign Liaison Bureau of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and
the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Malta transmitted to the
Registrar a certified true copy of a Special Agreement, and of a related
exchange of letters, signed at Valletta on 23 May 1976, by which their
Governments request the Court to decide the following question:
"What principles and rules of international law are applicable to the
delimitation of the area of the continental shelf which appertains to the
Republic of Malta and the area of continental shelf which appertains to the
Libyan Arab Republic, and how in practice such principles and rules can be
applied by the two Parties in this particular case in order that they may
without difficulty delimit such areas by an agreement as provided in Article
III";
Whereas the Secretary of the People's Committee for the People's Foreign
Liaison Bureau of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Malta also enclosed with their letter the proces-verbal of the
exchange of instruments for the ratification of the Special Agreement, which
took place at Valletta on 20 March 1982;
Whereas Article IV of the Special Agreement provides for its entry into [p
555] force on the date of exchange of the instruments of ratification and
for its joint notification to the Registrar of the Court;
Whereas in the said letter the two ministers stated that Dr. Abdelrazeg El-Murtadi
Suleiman had been appointed Agent of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and Dr.
Edgar Mizzi Agent of Malta, for the purposes of the case;
Whereas the views of the Parties with regard to questions of procedure
provided for in paragraph 2 of Article II of the Special Agreement are as
follows:
"Without prejudice to any question of the burden of proof, the written
pleadings shall consist of the following documents:
(a) Memorials to be submitted simultaneously to the Court by each Party and
exchanged with one another within a period of nine months from the date of
the notification of this agreement to the Registrar of the Court.
(b) Replies to be similarly submitted to the Court by each Party and
exchanged with one another within four months after the date of the
submissions of the Memorials to the Registrar.
(c) Additional written pleadings may be presented and exchanged in the same
manner within periods which shall be fixed by the Court at the request of
one of the Parties, or if the Court so decides after consultation with the
two Parties";
Taking this agreement into account, as provided in paragraph 2 of Article 44
of the Rules of Court;
Fixes 26 April 1983 as the time-limit for the filing of Memorials by the
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and by the Republic of Malta;
Reserves the subsequent procedure for further decision.
Done in English and in French, the English text being authoritative, at the
Peace Palace, The Hague, this twenty-seventh day of July one thousand nine
hundred and eighty-two, in three copies, one of which will be placed in the
archives of the Court, and the others transmitted to the Government of the
Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and to the Government of the
Republic of Malta respectively.
(Signed) Jose Sette-Camara,
Vice-President.
(Signed) Santiago Torres Bernárdez,
Registrar. |
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