15
AEGEAN SEA
(JUDGMENT)
with Article 44, paragraph 2, of the Act; nor is there any record of either
Greece or Turkey having notified the Secretary-General, in conformity
with Article 45, paragraph 3, of its denunciation of the Act. The Greek
Government maintains that, in these circumstances, the General Act must
be presumed to be still in force as between Greece and Turkey, in virtue of
paragraph 2 of Article 45, under which the Act is expressed to remain in
force for "successive periods of five years in the case of Contracting Parties
which do not denounce it at least six months before the expiration of the
current period". It further maintains that neither the reservations in
Greece's own instrument of accession nor those in the Turkish instrument
have any relevance to the present dispute, and that Article 17 of the
General Act accordingly constitutes a valid basis for the exercise of the
Court's jurisdiction in the present case under Article 36, paragraph 1, of
the Statute.
36. The Turlush Government, on the other hand, in the observations
which it transmitted to the Court with its letter to the Registrar of 25
August 1976, contested the Greek Government's right to invoke Article 17
of the General Act in the present case on both counts. It there took the
position that the General Act is no longer in force and that, whether or not
the General Act is in force, it is inapplicable as between Greece and
Turkey. In this connection, the Turkish Government has emphasized "that
at no time during the exchanges of documents and discussions concerning
the continental shelf areas of the Aegean Sea has any Greek representative
made any mention of the General Act of 1928".
37. In 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations undertook a
study of the text of the General Act of 1928 with a view to restoring its full
efficacy, since this had been impaired in some respects as a result of the
dissolution of the League of Nations and the disappearance of its organs.
On 29 April 1949, the General Assembly adopted resolution 268A-III, by
which it instructed the Secretary-General to prepare the text of a "Revised
General Act for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes" incorporating the amendments which it had adopted, and to hold it open to
accession by States. Explaining the reasons for this instruction, the Preamble to the resolution, inter alia, stated:
"Whereas the amendments hereafter mentioned are of a nature to
restore to the General Act its original efficacy;
Whereas these amendments will only apply as between States
having acceded to the General Act as thus amended and, as a consequence, will not affect the rights of such States, parties to the Act as
established on 26 September 1928, as should claim to invoke it in so
far as it might still be operative."