International law, Sixth edition
particular, it appears that they may be called upon to examine the nature
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International Law MALCOLM N. SHAW
particular, it appears that they may be called upon to examine the nature of the UK government’s dealings with a new regime in order to determine its status for municipal law purposes. 140 In Gur Corporation v. Trust Bank of Africa 141 the Court was in fact called upon to decide the status of Ciskei. This territory, part of South Africa, was one of the Bantustans granted ‘independence’ by South Africa. This was accomplished by virtue of the Status of Ciskei Act 1981. The preliminary issue that came before the Court in a commercial dispute was whether Ciskei had locus standi to sue or be sued in England. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office certified that Ciskei was not recog- nised as an independent sovereign state either de facto or de jure and that representations were made to South Africa in relation to matters occurring in Ciskei. The Court of Appeal held that it was able to take ac- count of such declarations and legislation as were not in conflict with the certificates. The effect of that, noted Lord Donaldson, was that the Status of Ciskei Act 1981 could be taken into account, except for those provisions declaring the territory independent and relinquishing South African sovereignty. This led to the conclusion that the Ciskei legislature was in fact exercis- ing power by virtue of delegation from the South African authorities. 142 Accordingly, the government of Ciskei could sue or be sued in the En- glish courts ‘as being a subordinate body set up by the Republic of South Africa to act on its behalf ’. 143 Clearly the Court felt that the situation was analogous to the Carl Zeiss case. Whether this was in fact so is an open question. It is certainly open to doubt whether the terms of the certificates in the cases were on all fours. In the Gur case, the executive was far more cautious and non-committal. Indeed, one of the certificates actually stated that the UK government did not have a formal position re- garding the exercise of governing authority over the territory of Ciskei, 144 whereas in Carl Zeiss the certificate noted expressly that the USSR was recognised as de jure entitled to exercise governing authority in respect the legislation was not to affect at all the government’s policy on recognition, but to sever the connection with public international law and deal with issues of private international law. 140 See 409 HL Deb., cols. 1097–8 and Symmons, ‘United Kingdom Abolition’, pp. 254–60. 141 [1987] 1 QB 599; 75 ILR, p. 675. 142 [1987] 1 QB 599, 623; 75 ILR, p. 696. 143 [1987] 1 QB 599, 624. See also Nourse LJ, ibid., pp. 624–66; 75 ILR, pp. 696–9. 144 [1987] 1 QB 599, 618–19; 75 ILR, p. 690. r e c o g n i t i o n 481 of the territory (the GDR). 145 The gap was bridged by construction and inference. More widely, it is unclear to what extent the change in policy on recog- nition of governments has actually led to a change in attitude by the courts. There is no doubt that the attitude adopted by the government in certi- fying whether or not diplomatic dealings were in existence with regard to the entity in question is crucial. An assertion of such dealing would, it appears, be determinative. 146 The problem arises where the Foreign Office statement is more ambiguous than the mere assertion of dealings with the entity. The consequence is that a greater burden is imposed on the courts as an answer as to status is sought. On the one hand, the Gur case suggests that the courts are not willing to examine for themselves the realities of any given situation, but would seek to infer from the terms of any cer- tificate what the answer ought to be. 147 On the other hand, Hobhouse J in the High Court in Republic of Somalia v. Woodhouse Drake and Carey (Suisse) SA 148 took the wider view that in deciding whether a regime was the government of a state, the court would have to take into account the following factors: (a) whether it is the constitutional government of the state; (b) the degree, nature and stability of administrative control, if any, that it of itself exercises over the territory of the state; (c) whether the UK government has any dealings with it, and if so the nature of those dealings; and (d) in marginal cases, the extent of international recognition that it has as the government of the state. 149 Download 7.77 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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