38 JAMES AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON (ARTICLE 1 OF PROTOCOL N° 1) (P1-1) CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE THÓR VILHJÁLMSSON (ARTICLE 1 OF PROTOCOL No 1) (P1-1) In the present case, I have voted with the other members of the Court. I am, however, unable to agree with what is stated in the judgment as to compensation (see paragraphs 53 to 57). To my regret, I have come to the conclusion that Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (P1-1) does not embody a right to compensation in the event of expropriation of one’s property. The text of the Article (P1-1) makes no mention of compensation. In my opinion, that should have been done if part of its purpose had been to guarantee a right to compensation. The ordinary meaning of the text as it stands is therefore that it is not concerned with compensation. Should it nevertheless be felt necessary to confirm this meaning by recourse to supplementary means of interpretation, the travaux préparatoires point to the very same conclusion, namely that Article 1 (P1-1) does not confer a right to compensation. The relevant points are the following. The Committee of Ministers examined in November 1950 various amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Consultative Assembly to the draft Convention on Human Rights. When it became clear that immediate agreement could not be reached with regard to certain matters, it was decided that they should be removed from the draft and submitted to a committee of experts for further study. One of these matters was the right to property. The amendment proposed by the Assembly did not speak of compensation. In spite of that, the majority of the member States considered that compensation should be guaranteed and accordingly the text of the expert committee contained words to that effect (see the Collected Edition of the "Travaux préparatoires", volume VII, pages 208 and 223-224). A number of Governments, however, could not agree to the inclusion in the Convention of the principle of compensation and reference to it was thereafter deleted from the text. A short account of how the text changed during the drafting period is given in the commentary of 18 September 1951 by the Secretary General (loc. cit., volume VIII, pages 4-10). In view of all this, I am bound to draw the conclusion that the object and purpose of Article 1 of the Protocol (P1-1) did not go so far as to include a guarantee of a right to compensation. Even if the Convention is to be interpreted in the light of present-day conditions, I fail to see any development which could justify now another interpretation of the Article (P1-1).