circumstances amounts to a violation of the adversarial principle ( Audiatur et altera pars ), which principle
must apply at any stage of the proceedings. This breach of fairness and equality of arms is all the more
remarkable given that the application lodged by Mr Emmanuel Joseph Uko and others was, upon receipt,
publicized on the website of the Court.
6. Failure to transmit the application to South Africa also deprived that State of the possibility to accept the
jurisdiction of the Court by way of forum prorogatum (on this question, see my separate opinion in the case
concerning Michelot Yogogombaye v. Republic of Senegal ).
1 The French text of the last sentence of paragraph 39 of the Yogogombaye Judgment , which is the
authoritative one, refers to the examination of the applications ( pour que la Cour puisse connaître de telles
requ?tes ) and not to the hearing of the cases as it is mentioned in the English text ( conditions under which
the Court could hear such cases ).
2