The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 208
192 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN appointment of the arbitrator and question the validity of the appointment of the arbitrator. Secondly, once an award is handed down, a party that signifies its acceptance of the award or acquiesces in the award, cannot afterwards turn round and question the validity of the award. Question : In a case like this, when, as you say, the two sides present their briefs, does the Court, in addition, investigate the situation ? Khan : If the written pleadings show that the parties are agreed on the facts, no further investigation is necessary and the Court proceeds on the basis of the written pleadings. If the relevant facts should be in dispute, the Court has power to issue a commission to investigate and report on the facts. Both parties would be represented before the Commission. The Court can hear witnesses itself, as it did in the Temple Case, between Cambodia and Thailand. It has all the powers which any other Court has for the purpose of ascertaining the facts. In what is known as the Corfu Channel Case, between the United Kingdom and Albania - this case was heard and decided before I joined the Court - all these procedures were gone through. The case was brought to the Court on the recommendation of the Security Council. The facts were that a squadron of the United Kingdom Navy was steaming up the Corfu Channel, which is an international channel and is also territorial waters of Albania, and it encountered mines in the channel. Two destroyers suffered damage and some of the personnel were killed and or injured. The United Kingdom took the matter to the Security Council. The Security Council recommended that the two parties take certain questions, which the Security Council formulated, to the Court, and they were taken to the Court. Later, Albania denied the jurisdiction of the Court. The Court held that Albania having once submitted to the jurisdiction of the Court, its subsequent repudiation of jurisdiction did not operate to deprive the Court of jurisdiction. The case involved several technical questions and the Court appointed a commission of experts to investigate and report on them. Finally the Court decided that the mines had not been laid by Albania, but that Albania was aware of the existence of the mines and, was thus under international obligation to give warning of the mines to the British squadron as soon as it learned that the squadron was to pass