28 JAMES AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT and non-nationals. And it was then agreed, at the request of the German and Belgian delegations, that "the general principles of international law, in their present connotation, entailed the obligation to pay compensation to nonnationals in cases of expropriation" (emphasis added). Above all, in their Resolution (52) 1 of 19 March 1952 approving the text of the Protocol and opening it for signature, the Committee of Ministers expressly stated that, "as regards Article 1 (P1-1), the general principles of international law in their present connotation entail the obligation to pay compensation to non-nationals in cases of expropriation" (emphasis added). Having regard to the negotiating history as a whole, the Court considers that this Resolution must be taken as a clear indication that the reference to the general principles of international law was not intended to extend to nationals. The travaux préparatoires accordingly do not support the interpretation for which the applicants contended. 65. Finally, it has not been demonstrated that, since the entry into force of Protocol No. 1 (P1), State practice has developed to the point where it can be said that the parties to that instrument regard the reference therein to the general principles of international law as being applicable to the treatment accorded by them to their own nationals. The evidence adduced points distinctly in the opposite direction. 66. For all these reasons, the Court concludes that the general principles of international law are not applicable to a taking by a State of the property of its own nationals. (d’) "Conditions provided for by law" 67. In the further alternative, the applicants argued that deprivation of property without payment of compensation, or with compensation which is unfair or unjust, does not fulfil the requirement in Article 1 (P1-1) that the deprivation should be "subject to the conditions provided for by law", interpreting that phrase as adverting not merely to municipal law but to the fundamental principles of law common to all the Contracting States. In their submission, a taking of property will be arbitrary and hence not in accordance with "the conditions provided for by law" in this sense if, as occurred in their case, the amount paid as compensation for the taking bears no reasonable relation to the value of the property taken. The Court has consistently held that the terms "law" or "lawful" in the Convention "[do] not merely refer back to domestic law but also [relate] to the quality of the law, requiring it to be compatible with the rule of law" (see, as the most recent authority, the Malone judgment of 2 August 1984, Series A no. 82, p. 32, para. 67). However on the facts, for the reasons given at paragraphs 56 and 57 above, there are no grounds for finding that the enfranchisement of the applicants’ properties was arbitrary because of the terms of compensation provided for under the leasehold reform legislation.