15 DE CUBBER v. BELGIUM JUGDMENT The circumstances of the present case, however, were different. The particular defect in question did not bear solely upon the conduct of the first-instance proceedings: its source being the very composition of the Oudenaarde criminal court, the defect involved matters of internal organisation and the Court of Appeal did not cure that defect since it did not quash on that ground the judgment of 29 June 1979 in its entirety. C. The Government’s further alternative plea 34. In the further alternative, the Government pleaded that a finding by the Court of a violation of Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) would entail serious consequences for Belgian courts with "limited staff", especially if it were to give a judgment "on the general question of principle" rather than a judgment "with reasoning limited to the very special" facts of the case. In this connection, the Government drew attention to the following matters. From 1970 to 1984, the workload of such courts had more than doubled, whereas there had been no increase in the number of judges. At Oudenaarde and at Nivelles, for example, taking account of vacant posts (deaths, resignations, promotions) and occasional absences (holidays, illness, etc.), there were only six or seven judges permanently in attendance, all of whom were "very busy", if not overwhelmed with work. Accordingly, it was virtually inevitable that one of the judges had to deal in turn with different aspects of the same case. To avoid this, it would be necessary either to constitute "special benches" - which would be liable to occasion delays incompatible with the principle of trial "within a reasonable time" - or to create additional posts, an alternative that was scarcely realistic in times of budgetary stringency. 35. The Court recalls that the Contracting States are under the obligation to organise their legal systems "so as to ensure compliance with the requirements of Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1)" (see the Guincho judgment of 10 July 1984, Series A no. 81, p. 16, para. 38); impartiality is unquestionably one of the foremost of those requirements. The Court’s task is to determine whether the Contracting States have achieved the result called for by the Convention, not to indicate the particular means to be utilised. D. Conclusion 36. To sum up, Mr. De Cubber was the victim of a breach of Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1). II. THE APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 50 (art. 50)