Case No.: IT-96-23 & 23/1-A

BEFORE THE PRE-APPEAL JUDGE

Before: Judge Mohamed Shahabuddeen, Pre-Appeal Judge

Registrar: Mr. Hans Holthuis

Order of: 7 September 2001

THE PROSECUTOR

v.

Dragoljub KUNARAC
Radomir KOVAC
and
Zoran VUKOVIC

______________________________________

ORDER ON PAGE LIMITS

______________________________________

Counsel for the Prosecutor:

Mr. Upawansa Yapa

Counsel for the Appellants:

Mr. Slavisa Prodanovic and Mr. Dejan Savatic for Dragoljub Kunarac
Mr. Momir Kolesar and Mr. Vladimir Rajic for Radomir Kovac
Mr. Goran Jovanovic and Ms. Jelena Lopicic for Zoran Vukovic

 

I, Mohamed Shahabuddeen, Judge of the Appeals Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991 ("the International Tribunal"),

NOTING the "Order designating a Pre-Appeal Judge" issued on 8 June 2001, which designated me as the Pre-Appeal Judge and provides, inter alia, that the Pre-Appeal Judge is "vested with the power to deal with problems arising before the commencement of the appeals hearing on behalf of the Appeals Chamber";

NOTING FURTHER the provisions of Rule 65ter of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the International Tribunal ("the Rules") which vest the Pre-trial Judge with the power "to take any measure necessary to prepare the case for a fair and expeditious trial";

CONSIDERING that Rule 65ter of the Rules governs proceedings in the Trial Chambers;

CONSIDERING that Rule 107 of the Rules stipulates that "the rules of procedure and evidence that govern proceedings in the Trial Chambers shall apply mutatis mutandis to proceedings in the Appeals Chamber";

NOTING that the appellants Radomir Kovac and Dragoljub Kunarac jointly filed confidentially on 4 September 2001 the "Appellants’ Reply on Prosecution’s Consolidated Respondent’s Brief" ("the Appellants’ Joint Reply Brief");

NOTING that paragraph (C)1(c) of the Practice Direction on the Length of Briefs and Motions (IT/184) of 19 January 2001 ("the Practice Direction") provides that "[t]he reply brief of an appellant in an appeal from a final judgement of a Trial Chamber will not exceed 30 pages or 9,000 words, whichever is greater";

CONSIDERING that the length of the Appellants’ Joint Reply Brief is 44 pages, that it exceeds the entitlement of 30 pages for the reply brief of an appellant, and that each of the two appellants falls to be considered as having filed a reply brief of 44 pages;

NOTING that under paragraph (C)7 of the Practice Direction, a party must seek authorisation in advance from the Chamber to exceed the page limits;

NOTING that no such application for authorisation has been submitted by the appellants;

CONSIDERING, however, that the filing of a joint reply brief may facilitate comprehension and promote an expeditious processing of the matter;

THEREFORE, in this particular case, I hereby authorise the oversized filing of the Appellants’ Joint Reply Brief.

 

Done in both English and French, the English text being authoritative.

_____________________________
Mohamed Shahabuddeen
Pre-Appeal Judge

Dated this seventh day of September 2001
At The Hague
The Netherlands.

[Seal of the Tribunal]