3
opinion, simply be conceived as providing for an exception to the principle of
the "final" character of the judgments of the Cow·t enshrined in U1e preceding
paragraph.
10. I am also of the view that the Court should have clearly spelt out the three
conditions for admissibility of an application for review as provided for by the
Protocol and the Rules, that is to say that the application I) must contain new
evidence,2) which the Cow1 "'or" the Applicant had no knowledge of when the
judgment was being rendered, and 3) to be submitted within six months of the
date the said party discovered the new evidence.
11. ln so doing, lhe Cow·t could have taken advantage of this occasion to make a
useful clarification on some or lhe weaknesses contained in lhe Protocol and lhe
Rules on this issue.
l2. The discrepancy between the English and French versions of paragraph 3 of
Article 28 of the Protocol couJd indeed explain why one of the three conditions
which it poses is not identical to that of paragraph 1 of Rule 67 of the Rules.
13. The French version of paragraph 3 of Article 28 of the Protocol makes it
possible for the Court to review its judgment in the light of new evidence
44
Which was not within its knowledge at the time of its decision"; for its part, the
English version of thJs paragraph does not contairJ such a condition.
14. As for paragraph 1 of Rule 67 of the Rules, both the English and French
versions provide that it is the "party" which files the application for review, that
is not supposed to have had knowledge of the new evidence at the time the
judgment was rendered.
15. ln this regard, it is important lo point out that the instruments governing the
functioning of other international Courts and dealing with the issue of revision
or review, require that both the Court and the party requesting the Teview must
have been unaware of the new fact; this is for exam-ple provided for by Article
25 of the Protocol establishing the Court of Justice of the Economic Community
of West African States/ Article 48 (I) of the Protocol establishing the African
Court of Justice and Human Rights)4 Al1icle 61 (I) of the Statute of the
1
<<An application for revision for a decision may be made only when it is based upon Lbe
discovery of some fact of such a nature as to be a decisive factor, which fact was, when the
decision was given, unknown to lhe Court and also to the party claiming revision, provided
always U1at such ignorance was not due to negligence».
4
(<An application for revision of a judgmenl may bu made to the Court only when it is based
upon discovery of a new fact of such natw·e as to be a decisive factor, which fact was. when
the judgment was given, unknown to the Court and also to the party claiming revision,
provided that such ignorance was not due to neg! igence».