2
CAN v. AUSTRIA JUGDMENT
3. The Chamber of seven judges to be constituted included, as ex officio
members, Mr. F. Matscher, the elected judge of Austrian nationality (Article
43 of the Convention) (art. 43), and Mr. G. Wiarda, the President of the
Court (Rule 21 para. 3 (b)). On 22 October 1984, the President drew by lot,
in the presence of the Registrar, the names of the five other members,
namely Mr. J. Pinheiro Farinha, Mr. E. Garcia de Enterria, Mr. L.-E. Pettiti,
Mr. B. Walsh and Mr. R. Bernhardt (Article 43 in fine of the Convention
and Rule 21 para. 4) (art. 43). Subsequently, Mr. Garcia de Enterria and Mr.
Bernhardt, who were prevented from taking part in the consideration of the
case, were replaced by Mr. F. Gölcüklü and Mr. C. Russo, substitute judges
(Rules 22 para. 1 and 24 para. 1).
4. Having assumed the office of President of the Chamber (Rule 21
para. 5), Mr. Wiarda consulted, through the Deputy Registrar, the Agent of
the Austrian Government ("the Government"), the Delegate of the
Commission and the lawyer for Mr. Can regarding the need for a written
procedure (Rule 37 para. 1). On 3 December 1984, he directed that the
Agent and the lawyer should each have until 31 January 1985 to file a
memorial and that the Delegate should be entitled to reply in writing within
three weeks from the date of the transmission to him by the Registrar of
whichever of the aforesaid pleadings should last be filed.
However, the President subsequently granted to the Government several
extensions of their time-limit since they were conducting settlement
negotiations with the lawyer for the applicant. The latter’s memorial was
received by the Registrar on 4 February.
5. The negotiations proved successful and the Permanent Representative
of Austria to the Council of Europe informed the Registrar on 11 June of the
terms of the friendly settlement to which they had led (see paragraph 14
below). At the same time, he advised the Registrar that the Government
requested the Court to strike the case out of the list (Rule 48 para. 2 of the
Rules of Court); in a letter of 28 May, received at the registry on 3 June, Mr.
Can’s lawyer had indicated that he agreed to such a course. On 19 June, the
Permanent Representative also notified the Court of an initial step that had
been taken by the Government (see paragraph 14 below).
The Delegate, for his part, considered that the friendly settlement in
question could be regarded as based on respect for human rights; the Deputy
Secretary to the Commission so informed the Registrar on 12 August.
6. On 25 September, the Court decided to dispense with hearings,
having found that the requisite conditions for this derogation from the usual
procedure were satisfied (Rules 26 and 38 of the Rules of Court).