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Whereas it follows from the whole body of rules governing the powers
of the Court, that it cannot interpret the Convention in an abstract
manner, but only in relation to such specific cases as are referred to
it; whereas, according to Article 45 (art. 45) of the Convention, the
jurisdiction of the Court "shall extend to all cases concerning the
interpretation and application of the Convention"; and whereas the
exact meaning of this clause is defined in other articles of the
Convention, namely: (a) Article 47 (art. 47), according to which "the
Court may only deal with a case after the Commission has acknowledged
the failure of efforts for a friendly settlement and within the period
of three months provided for in Article 32 (art. 32)"; (b) Article 53
(art. 53), which states that only High Contracting Parties which are
"parties to the case" are bound by the decision of the Court;

Whereas it follows from the foregoing that the Court is not competent
to take decisions such as to delete a rule from the Commission's Rules
of Procedure - a step which would affect all Parties to the Convention -
since this would amount to having power to make rulings on matters of
procedure or to render advisory opinions; that accordingly the Court
has no power to consider a point raised in a general by the Commission
and the Irish Government;

Whereas, notwithstanding, it is the duty of the Court, in the exercise
of its functions, to ensure that the Convention is respected and, if
need be, to point to any irregularities and to refuse to apply in such a
case any provisions or regulations which are contrary to the
Convention; whereas it follows that the Court must consider the specific
point which follows;

(ii) As regards the communication of the Commission's Report
to G.R. Lawless

Whereas it was established, in the course of the proceedings, that
the Commission transmitted the Report drawn up in accordance with
Article 31 (art. 31) of the Convention to G.R. Lawless, the
Applicant, on 13th April 1960 that is to say one day after bringing the
case before the Court;

Whereas the Irish Government claimed that the Commission committed a
breach of the Convention in communicating its Report to G.R. Lawless,
arguing that Article 31 (art. 31) of the Convention expressly forbade
Contracting States to publish the Commission's Report; that this
applied also to the Committee of Ministers unless the State concerned
did not take the measures required by the decision of the Committee of
Ministers; that if the case were brought to the Court, the Report had
to remain with the Court and be kept secret unless the Court expressly
authorised its publication; that just as the Contracting Parties
undertook, by virtue of the Convention, to keep the Report secret,
so the Commission, which derived its competence solely from the
Convention to which those States were voluntary Parties, was
correspondingly not at liberty to publish the Report when it wished,
or to communicate it to whomsoever it thought fit, otherwise the
Contracting Parties would be in a position subordinate to that of the
Commission with regard to the secrecy of the Report; that it was not
by a fortuitous omission that the authors of the Convention did not
include a clause expressly forbidding the Commission to publish the
Report; that under the terms of the Convention, the individual had no
part in the proceedings either before the Committee of Ministers or
before the Court; and that once the Commission had adopted its Report,
the individual dropped out of the proceedings altogether;

Whereas the Commission, in justification of its action in
communicating the Report to the Applicant, maintained that the
Contracting States, subject to the express provisions of the
Convention, had conferred on it the necessary powers to fulfil
effectively the functions entrusted to it by Article 19 (art. 19) of
the Convention; whereas, moreover, the latter contained no provision
forbidding the Commission to publish its Report or communicate it to
whomsoever it wished when it considered that the fulfilment of its
functions so required; whereas, furthermore, in the present case, the
Commission had communicated the Report to G.R. Lawless after the case
had been referred to the Court in order to be in a position to present
the case impartially and, in so doing had borne in mind that it was
the Applicant who had first brought the case before the Commission;

Whereas in the opinion of the Court the procedure, in a case brought
before it under the terms of the Convention, differs from that
applicable either before the Commission or before the Committee of
Ministers;

Whereas the procedures referred to in Section III of the Convention
are secret and the proceedings before the Commission which involve the
Applicant, are conducted in camera in accordance with Article 33
(art. 33); whereas moreover, when the Commission transmits its Report
to the Committee of Ministers and to the States concerned, they are
prevented, by Article 31 (2) (art. 31-2), from publishing it;

Whereas, as soon as the case has been referred to the Court, in
accordance with Article 48 (art. 48) of the Convention, the
proceedings assume a judicial character; whereas, futhermore, in any
democratic society, within the meaning of the Preamble and the other
clauses of the Convention, proceedings before the judiciary should be
conducted in the presence of the parties and in public; whereas this
fundamental principle, with regard to domestic civil and criminal law,
is upheld in Article 6 (art. 6) of the Convention and whereas Section
IV of the Convention, governing the organisation and competence of the
Court, contains no such provision as Article 33 (art. 33) which
stipulates that the Commission shall meet in camera; whereas Rule 18
of the Rules of Court in fact states that hearings shall be public
"unless the Court shall in exceptional circumstances decide
otherwise"; whereas likewise, Rule 51 states that the Court's
judgments "shall be read at a public hearing" and whereas it follows,
therefore, that proceedings before the Court are public;

Whereas it is true that the debates and the judgment alone are public
and that other documents in the case can only be published, in
accordance with Rule 52 of Rules of Court, if the Court expressly
authorises such publication; whereas, however, this provision cannot
alter the fact that the proceedings take place in the presence of the
Parties ("le caractère contradictoire de la procédure"), nor does it
prevent the communication of the documents in the case to the persons
or bodies directly concerned, with the proviso, made either by the
Commission or by one of the Parties, that they should not be
published; whereas, therefore, there is a distinction between the
publication of documents for which the authorisation of the Court is
required and the communication of the said documents to the Applicant,
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