INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
Peace Palace, 2517 KJ The Hague. Tel. 92 44 41. Cables: Intercourt, The Hague
Telex 32323
Communiqu6
un0fficial
for ~mmediaterelease
NO 84/24
3 August 1984
Tunisia files in the International Court of Justice an
The following information is made available to the Press hy the
Registrar of the International Court of Justice:
On 27 July 1984 t.he Tunisian Goverment filed an application
requesting the Court to revise and interpret the Judgment it delivered on
24 February 1982 in the case concerning Tunisia's dispute with the
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya over the delimitation of the c.onti.nenta1 shelf
betweeen the two States.
The Tunisian Goverment bases its application for revision and
interpretation on Articles 60 and hl of the Stat-ute of the Court and
Arti.cles 98, 99 and 100 of the Rules of Court.
Article 61, paragraph 1 of the Statute is worded as folkowç:
"An application for revision of a judgment vay be made only
when it is based upon the discovery of some fact of such a nature as
to be a decisive factor, which face was, wlien the judgment was
given, unknown to the Court and also to the party claiming revision,
always provided that such ignorance was not due to negligence."
Article 60 of the Statute rearis:
"The judgment in final and withoirt sppeal. In the event of
dispute as to the meaning or scope of the jr~dgnent, the Court shall
const rue i t ul.orl the re(lc~~-.;of aiiy pau LV."
To.. .
5- 'C5 %,- To justify its application for revision, the Tunisian Govemmenr has
invoked the discovery of a new fact. It has requested the Court to
declare the application admissible and, in regard to the first sector of
the delimitation envisaged by the Court, to revise the delimitation line
indicated by the Judgment. In the event of the Court's deciding that the
application for revision is not admissible, it has requested the Court t ( g
construe certain passages of the Judgment concerning this sector. It has
further requested the Court to declare in respect of the second sector
that it is for the experts of the Parties to establish the exact
CO-ordinates of the most westerly point of the Gulf of Gabes, which is
mentioned in the operative tenns of the Court's Judgment.
Pursuant to the Rules of Court, the Vice-President has fixed a
time-limit within which the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya will be entitled to
present written observations on the Tunisian application, in particular
on the subject of admissibility (Rules, Art. 99, para. 2). The
time-limit expires on 15 October 1984.
This is the first time that the International Court of Justice has
been requested to revise one of its Judgments, and the second time ft has
been requested to construe a judgment - the first application for
interpretation concerned the Judgment given by the Court on
20 November 1950 in the Asylum case (Colombia/~eru). No combined request
for revision and interpretation has ever been filed before.
Tunisia files in the International Court of Justice an Application for Revision and Interpretation of the Judgment of 24 February 1982 in the case concerning the Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)