JAMES AND OTHERS v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUGDMENT 25 the passages from the 1966 White Paper quoted at paragraph 18 above). In effect, the tenant and his predecessors are deemed already to have paid for the house. That assessment of the factual situation, so the Court has held, is one which Parliament was entitled to adopt and act on in the public interest (see paragraph 49 above). On the view that Parliament took, it logically follows that "in equity" the tenant should only be required to pay for that part of the property which he has not already paid for, that is the value of the ground. The 1967 basis of valuation, although it excludes the "merger value" (see paragraphs 13 and 23 (a) above), does compensate the landlord for the existing investment value of his interest in the ground. The objective pursued by the leasehold reform legislation is to prevent a perceived unjust enrichment accruing to the landlord on the reversion of the property. In the light of that objective, judged by the Court to be legitimate for the purposes of Article 1 (P1-1), it has not been established, having regard to the respondent State’s wide margin of appreciation, that the 1967 basis of valuation is not such as to afford a fair balance between the interests of the private parties concerned and thereby between the general interest of society and the landlord’s right of property. 57. As to the second head of complaint, it is possible, as is shown by the circumstances of the enfranchisements affecting the applicants (see paragraph 29 (v) above), for delays, sometimes long, to occur between valuation date and payment of the price. On the other hand, it is open to a landlord who believes that the process of enfranchisement is being deliberately or unnecessarily delayed to refer the matter to the competent tribunal (see paragraph 25 above). It cannot be treated as a defect in the system that a landlord should choose not to avail himself of this remedy and so should permit the tenant to protract the conduct of the negotiations. The law also contains provisions for avoiding and penalising delays (ibid.). The Court accordingly concludes that the compensation procedures laid down in the contested legislation do not inherently lead to delays of such a degree as to involve a violation of Article 1 (P1-1). (c’) General principles of international law 58. The applicants argued in the alternative that the reference in the second sentence of Article 1 (P1-1) to "the general principles of international law" meant that the international law requirement of, so they asserted, prompt, adequate and effective compensation for the expropriation of property of foreigners also applied to nationals. 59. The Commission has consistently held that the principles in question are not applicable to a taking by a State of the property of its own nationals. The Government supported this opinion. The Court likewise agrees with it for the following reasons. 60. In the first place, purely as a matter of general international law, the principles in question apply solely to non-nationals. They were specifically