course of his whole active life. He deemed himself victim of an injustice caused
him by the said State and asked for reparation.
21. The Reply of the State of Mali sets fo1th, for the first time, issues of law in that
it raises the question of incompetence of the Comt to adjudicate on the dispute
submitted before it, and on the point that, it refuses to recognise Moussa Leo Kei'ta
as being qualified to appear before the Community Court.
22. The said Rejoinder of the Applicant (who was represented by a lawyer during
the first hearing of the Court) shifted the terrain of the legal debate to that of
violation of Human Rights as provided for in Articles 9 and 10 of the 2005
amended Protocol.
A) AS TO THE COMPETENCE OF THE COURT OF IBSTICE OF
ECOWAS
23. The Application instituting proceedings does not talk about the personal or
material competence of the Comt. Only the Reply, the Rejoinder, and the Reply to
the Rejoinder do mention it. Hence, one needs to ask whether the Comt of Justice
of ECO WAS can adjudicate upon the Application thus filed, or else, whether it has
to take account of the supplementary Application deposited at the hearing of the 4
October 2006 in the form of a Rejoinder from the Applicant.
24. The reply to this question can be found in Atticle 37 of the Rules of the Court
of Justice, which provides as follows:
a) In reply to a rejoinder a party may offer further evidence. The party must,
however, give reasons for the delay in offering it.
b) No new plea in law may be introduced in the course ofproceedings unless it
is based on matters of law or offact which come to light in the course of the
procedure.
25. The Defendant's Reply and his further Reply to the Applicant's Rejoinder
conclude upon the inadmissibility of Moussa Leo Kerta's appeal, as drawn from the
incompetence of the Court, within the meaning of Articles 9 and 10 of the 2005
Supplementa1y Protocol, which provide as follows:
5
Downloaded from worldcourts.com. Use is subject to terms and conditions. See worldcourts.com/terms.htm