Two years since Macedonia filed the lawsuit against Greece over the breach of the Interim Accord, serious talks between the teams of Macedonia and Greece with the Secretariat of the International Court of Justice in the Hague and with Hisashi Owada, the Court’s president, are now in progress.
By the time the court hearing begins everything, such as the time each party is going to take to talk, the number of witnesses, if any, etc, will have been defined.
Both parties are working hard on the case and there is still no information if experts will be called to the stand. People close to the situation say that the attorneys Macedonia has hired are working very hard on every aspect and are providing arguments many of which have already been laid out in the written correspondence.
It is almost certain that there will not be a third round of written correspondence considering that is done at the plaintiff’s initiative, or Macedonia in this particular case, and Macedonia has no intention of taking that step and is preparing for the next stage instead.
The written correspondence in the case of Macedonia’s lawsuit against Greece did not take long compared with the other lawsuits at the Court. In the first round Macedonia and Greece had six months each to prepare their written submission and in the second round, undertaken at Macedonia’s initiative, both parties had four months each for their written submissions.
The court hearing will most likely be set for September 2011 and is not expected to take more than a month. Once it begins, the written submissions will be made available to the public. The verdict is usually reached shortly after the end of the court hearing. However, the process of declaration is long and takes from six months to a year.
This time period is needed primarily for technical reasons. The Court’s verdict written in English is provided to all judges. They have the opportunity to write their own opinion regardless of whether they agree or disagree with the verdict. After this stage, the final text of the verdict is prepared and declared. In the meantime, by the time the verdict is officially pronounced, no information is released in public.
If the court hearing takes place in September 2011, the verdict will be pronounced in October, November or December 2012.
Initially the court process was expected to take three to five years. From this standpoint and bearing in mind the previous practice the whole procedure is expected to be over in less than five years.
Despite the initial impression, it is fact that the process is carried out fast compared with the other lawsuits. In the case of Georgia vs. Russia, which went underway two months before Macedonia’s lawsuit against Greece was filed, the first round of the written correspondence has just ended.
The Macedonian case before the International Court of Justice is significant because it is not connected with the name issue talks conducted under UN auspices.
“This case is not about the name issue and is not going to have an effect on the process of negotiations about the name conducted under the UN auspices and mediated by Matthew Nimetz,” said Toni Deskoski, professor at the Justinian I Faculty of Law.
It is also believed that Macedonia has a clear case before the Court in the Hague. In other words, the case is simple considering that Macedonia sues Greece for breaching only Article 11 of the Interim Accord that binds Greece not to block Macedonia’s integration provided Macedonia uses the provisional reference.
Experts say that Macedonia has merely passed into the rational area of arguments. In their view, Macedonia is thus going to gain more publicity too, which Greece finds easier to do considering its position, membership of the international organizations and the more developed diplomatic network.
“At the Court of Justice, countries are not divided into small and big, or strong and weak. They are all equal parties in a dispute,” says Gordana Siljanovska, professor at the Faculty of Law.
