Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2008
Far from being confined to its most obvious manifestations, such as in the right to be tried within a “reasonable time” guaranteed by Articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, references to the notion of “reasonable” are found in a large variety of primary rules pronounced in both legal instruments and the case law.1
1. Corten, , L'utilisalion du “raisonnable” par le juge international Discours juridique, raison et contradictions (1997), Bruylant, (ed.), chap.II.Google Scholar
2. The term “reasonable”—as opposed to reasonableness, for instance—is used to reflect the terms actually used by international courts.
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4. A significant number of decisions by international arbitration tribunals have also been considered. However, the decisions of the ECJ have not been examined.
5. Continental Shelf (Tunisia/Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) I.C.J. Rep. 1982, 18, para.60.Google Scholar
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8. Our translation: Salmon, “Les notions à contenu variable en droit international public”, in Perelman and vander Elst, idem, p.265.
9. Salmon, , “Le fait dans l'application du droit international” (1982) 175 Collected Courses of the Hague Academy of International Law 306: what is reasonable “implique une évaluation qui échappe à vrai dire au droit”.Google Scholar
10. Perelman, , “La motivation des décisions de justice. Essai de synthèse”, in Perelman, and Foriers, (Eds), La motivation des décisions de justice (1978), p.421.Google Scholar
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12. See Arnaud, (Ed.), Dictionnaire encyclopédique de théorie et de sociologie du droit (1988), p.412.Google Scholar
13. See the analysis and the references in the present author's book, op. cit. supra n.1, at p.142, No.133 and p.308, No.273.Google Scholar
14. Art. 14 reads: “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground such as sex, race, colour …”
15. Certain aspects of the laws on the use of languages in education in Belgium, Ser.A, No.6, 23 07 1968, p.34, para.10.Google Scholar
16. Our translation: Levy-Bruhl, Sociologie du droit (1990), p.69Google Scholar; Similar observations are found in Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (English trans, by Rackman, , 1962), V, 14 at para.1137b.Google Scholar
17. Our translation; Levy-Bruhl, idem, pp.76–77.
18. Our translation: Perelman, Le raisonnable et le déraisonnable en droit (1984), p.134.Google ScholarSee Salmon, , “Le concept de raisonnable en droit international public”, in Mélanges Renter (1982), pp.449–450Google Scholar and Hart, , The Concept of Law (1961), p.128.Google Scholar
19. Corfu Channel I.C J. Rep. 1949, 18Google Scholar and Eur.Ct.H.R, Ireland v. The United Kingdom, Ser.A, No.25 (18 01 1978) para.161Google Scholar; see Land, Island and Maritime Frontier Dispute (El Salvador/Honduras: Nicaragua intervening) I.C.J. Rep. 1992, 351, para.228.Google Scholar
20. Subjectivist approaches seek to ascertain the will of the parties, and thus insist particularly on preparatory documents. Objectivist approaches aim at ascertaining meaning by interpreting the text itself and its relationship with the legal system as a whole. See Corten, op. cit. supra n.1, at p.268, nn.16 and 17.Google Scholar
21. Claims arising out of decisions of the mixed Greek-German Tribunal set up under Article 304 in Part X of the Treaty of Versailles (between Greece and Germany) (6 01 1972), Part II, XIX R.I.A.A. 27, 61, para.71Google Scholar; see the Societa Mineria et Metallurgica di Pertulosa decision No.95 (8 03 1951) XII R.I.A.A. 174, 186Google Scholar; diss. op. of Judge Hackworth in the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. case, I.C.J. Rep. 1952, 93, 140Google Scholar; sep. op. of Judge Armand-Ugon in the case concerning the Aerial Incident of July 27th 1955 I.C.J. Rep. 1959, 127, 154Google Scholar; see also Polish Postal Service in Dantzig, P.C.I.J. Rep. Ser.B, No.ll (16 05 1925), p.39Google Scholar and Peter Pazmany University v. The State of Czechoslovakia, Ser.AB, No. 61 (15 12 1933), p.248.Google Scholar
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24. See the jurisprudence cited in Corten, op. cit. supra n.1, at chap.I, sect.4.
25. Apory, : “Cognitive perplexity posed by a group of individually plausible but collectively inconsistent propositions”: Honderich, (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (1995).Google Scholar
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36. Convention on the High Seas, Geneva (29 04 1958) 450 U.N.T.S. 1963, No. 6465, Art. 2: “Freedom of the high seas is exercised under the conditions laid down by these Articles… These freedoms… shall be exercised by all States with reasonable regard to the interests of other States in the exercise of the freedom of the high seas.”Google Scholar
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44. Art.6 reads: “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time…“
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