Corfu Channel (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland v. Albania) - Judgment of the Court of 15 December 1949

l I.C.J. Communiqué No, 49/26.
(Unof f icial)

The following informatio nrom the Registryof the International

Court of Justice has been made available to the Press:
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I To-day3 December 15th, 1949, at a publichearing the International

I Court of Justice gave judgment in the last stage of the Corfu Charnel

~ Case between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and

the People's&public of Albania,

In a Judpent given on dpril 9th, 19.49 te Court held Albania

responsible, under internationa law, for the explosions r~hich occurred
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on October 22nd, 1946, in'Albanianwaters, &d for the damage and 103s

~ of human life that resulted to the United Kingdom. Tn the same Judgment,

the Court concluded that ithad jurisdiction to assess the mount of the

1 compensation, but it was not able to do so immediately, as certain

information was lacking.
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Therewere therefore further proceedings to enable the two parties

to investigate, prove or dispute the sums claimed as compensation.
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During these proceedings, Albwie announced its ~Lzw that, in

accordance with the Lems of the SpeciaP Agreementsigned by the twu
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1 .a parties, the Court had solely to consider the questionof principle wheth~r

Aibania w23, or was not, obliged to pay compensztion to the United Kingdorn,

and that, in Albania's view, the Court had no jurisdiction to fix what the

amount of compensation should be. ConsequentlyA ,lbania declded not te

take any further part in the proceedlngs.

At a public hearing on Novernber l7th, 194.9, the Court, after hearing

the representatives of the United Kingdom, ordered an axaninatio nf the

figures and estLwtes produced by the United Kingdom to be entrusted to

experts,owing to the technical nature of the question raised. These experts, who were two specialists in naval construction and

in warships, of Netherlands nationality, handed in their report on

Decernber 2nd; at a, çubsequent meeting of the Court, they answered

questions put to them by certain Judges who desired further'enlightement,

In tocdayfs Judgment, the Court states that, as the Albanian Govern-

ment has failed to defend its case, procedurein default of appearance is

brought into operation. The Courthaving given a decision in its Judgment

of April 9th that it has jurisdiction to assess the compensation, the

matter is res .iuàicat aad no longer in discussion,

4b But men in procedure in default of sppearance, the Court is bound

to satisfy itself th& the claim is well founded in Eact and law.

The Court therefore considers successively the three heads of

compensation in the United Kingdom claim: for the replacement of the

l destroyer Sawnarez ,which became a total loss as the result of the

explosions in the Corfu Channel; for the damagesustained by the

destroyer Volage; and finally in respect of the deaths and injuries of

naval personnel.

On the first tm heads of the clairn the Court states that, in

the view of the experts appointed by it, the figures given by the Ufiited
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Kingdom Gcvernment may be held to be an exact and reasonzbla esthte of

the damage suatained,

As regards the clah for compenszt~on in respect of naval personnel,

the Court considers that the documents produced by the United Kingdom

Goverment are sufficient proof.

The Court kherefore givss Judgment in favour of the claim of the

United Kingdom and condems Albania to pay to that countrya total

compensation of g843,947.

The Hague, December l5th, 1949.