DOMBO BEHEER B.V. v. THE NETHERLANDS JUDGMENT 10 into force of the new law, which had an entirely different structure. It likewise rejected the complaint based on Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) of the Convention; this was based, according to the Supreme Court, on the argument that the Court of Appeal had violated the principle that "the procedural rights of both parties should be equivalent". This line of argument, in the opinion of the Supreme Court, "... fails to recognise that in assessing the convincingness of the content of witnesses’ statements, the judge with competence to determine questions of fact is free to consider the nature and degree of involvement of a witness with a party in proceedings and that he must also judge a witness’s statement in the light of what the opposing party has put forward in its written pleadings or when appearing before the court in person". III. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE A. Parties as witnesses, in general: the former law 23. 23. Prior to the entry into force of the new rules of evidence in civil cases on 1 April 1988 (see paragraph 27 below) evidence in civil procedure was governed by the Civil Code (Burgerlijk Wetboek - CC) and the Code of Civil Procedure (Wetboek van Burgerlijke Rechtsvordering - CCP), both of which dated from 1838 and were largely based on the corresponding French codes. The former law, which applied at the time of the proceedings in issue, did not lay down in so many words that a person was not allowed to testify in a case to which he was a party. It was nevertheless generally accepted that, in the words of the Supreme Court, "one of the principles of the Netherlands law of civil procedure is that a person who is formally or substantively a party to litigation cannot be heard as a witness in his own case" (judgment of 1 February 1963, NJ (Nederlandse Jurisprudentie, Netherlands Law Reports) 1964, 157). This view was based on, inter alia, Article 1947 para. 1 CC, according to which relatives by blood or by marriage in a direct line, spouses and former spouses of parties to proceedings were disqualified from being witnesses. The rule that an actual party was not allowed to give evidence himself was repeatedly confirmed and strictly applied by the Supreme Court, as reflected by, inter alia, its judgments of 22 May 1953, NJ 1953, 647; 1 February 1963, NJ 1964, 157; 5 January 1973, NJ 1973, 106, and the judgments referred to below in paragraph 25. 24. However, it did not follow that it was impossible for the courts to hear parties in person. The courts had the following possibilities at their disposal: (a) The "decisive oath" and the "supplementary oath" involved hearing a party to proceedings on oath.