Civil Parties: filing of Documents Before the ECCC

FILING OF DOCUMENTS BEFORE THE ECCC
The Rules and Procedure Committee of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts
of Cambodia (ECCC),
CONSIDERING the Agreement between the United Nations and the Royal
Government of Cambodia Concerning the Prosecution under Cambodian law of
Crimes committed during the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, signed on 6 June
2003 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Agreement’),
CONSIDERING the Law on the Establishment of the Extraordinary Chambers in the
Courts of Cambodia with inclusion of the amendments as promulgated on 27 October
2004 (hereinafter referred to as ‘ECCC Law’),
CONSIDERING the Internal Rules of the ECCC, adopted by the Plenary Session of
Judges on 12 June 2007 and signed into force on 19 June 2007,
ACTING in accordance with Rule 20(3) of the ECCC Internal Rules, which entitles
the Rules and Procedure Committee to adopt Practice Directions relating to the
functioning of the ECCC, subject to review in the subsequent Plenary Session,
HEREBY ISSUE this Practice Direction on filing of documents (hereinafter referred
to as ‘Practice Direction 01/2007’)
Article 1: Opening and Numbering of Case Files:
1.1 The Office of the Co-Investigating Judges (OCIJ) shall open a new case file
upon the filing of an Introductory Submission and shall assign a case number
to the file.
1.2. The following symbols shall be used in assigning a case number
(e.g. 01/31-07-2007-ECCC/OCIJ)
a. 01 - Sequential number of the case
b. 31-07-2007 – Date on which the case file was opened.
c. ECCC – Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
d. The Organ before which the document is lodged. The following
initials will be used in this respect:
OCIJ Office of the Co-Investigating Judges
PTC Pre Trial Chamber
TC Trial Chamber
SCC Supreme Court Chamber
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1.3. In addition to the Case Number, the following symbols identified in bold shall
be used by the greffier in assigning a page and category number of the
document (e.g. 01/31-07-2007-ECCC/OCIJ-001-B4)
a. 001 – Sequential number of the document.
b. B4 – This is allocated by the greffier as directed by the Co-
Investigating Judges and represents the sub-folder category and
document number therein. The number following the letter signifies
the document number within the sub-folder.
Sub-folder Categories:
A – Form
B – Personality
C – Detention and Bail Conditions
D – Substance
E – Judgment Hearings
Article 2: Filing of documents
2.1. For the purposes of this Practice Direction, any filing of documents by the
parties, and any communication from or to the parties, shall made to the
greffier of the Office of the Co-Investigating Judges, or the Chambers, as
appropriate (hereinafter the “relevant greffier”), through the Case File Officer.
The Case File Officer sits in Room 118 of the ECCC Administration building.
2.2 Any person entitled to file documents before the ECCC shall notify the
relevant greffier as to which of the official language(s) of the ECCC they
intend to file and receive documents.
2.3. The official filing hours for lodging documents before the ECCC are from
Monday to Friday (8:00 am to 4.00 pm), excluding official holidays, as
advertised by the Royal Government of Cambodia.
2.4. All Documents filed before the ECCC in accordance with the Internal Rules
shall be submitted by any authorized person to Case File Officer who shall be
responsible for immediately forwarding the documents to the relevant greffier
as provided in the Internal Rules.
Article 3: Format of Documents
3.1 All documents shall be filed together with ‘Filing Instructions’ in the format
demonstrated at Appendix A. All documents should be filed in hard copy
only. Electronic filings may be accepted with the leave of the Co-
Investigating Judges or the relevant Chamber.
3.2 All documents shall have the following information on the first page, in the
format demonstrated at Appendix B:
a. The Co-Investigating Judges or the Chamber before which the case is
currently being processed.
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b. The case number as detailed in Article 1.2 above
c. To whom the document is filed.
d. The date of the document.
e. The party or individual that is filing the document.
f. The original language of the document.
g. The type of the document, i.e. ‘Public’, ‘Confidential’ or , ‘Ex parte’.
h. The short title of the document, which shall be as concise as possible.
i. The Parties that shall receive notice of the document filed.
j. The total number of pages of the document
3.3. There should be no logo or badge on the first page, which are used solely for
decisions of the ECCC.
3.4. Each subsequent page of the document shall have the following information:
a. The case number, as detailed in Article 1.2 above, in the top right hand
corner.
b. The short title of the document in the bottom left hand corner.
c. The page number and total number of pages in the bottom right hand
corner.
3.5. The top left hand corner of each page of every document shall be left clear for
the endorsement of an electronic ERN number generated by the Zylab system.
3.6. Documents shall be printed on one side of the page only.
3.7. Documents shall be submitted in A4 sized paper. Margins shall be at least 2.5
centimetres on all four sides. Paragraphs shall be numbered. All documents
shall be paginated.
3.8. The type face in English or French shall be typed in font Times New Roman
12 point with 1.5 line spacing. Footnotes shall be 10 point.
3.9. Electronic documents in Khmer shall be typed in Unicode font Khmer Kep,
font size 12. Headings shall be in Unicode font Khmer MEF2, font size 12.
Such fonts can be obtained at the following link:
http://www.khmeros.info/drupal/?q=en/download
3.10. Documents shall be filed unbound and shall not contain dividers, post-it
indexes or flags.
3.11. The original document shall be filed together with a copy and any
photographs, audio tapes and video tapes which are submitted as part of the
filing.
3.12. Subject to the general confidentiality of the case file, documents may be
marked ‘public’ or ‘under seal’ as appropriate. The Judges or Chamber shall
review the document to determine whether it shall be published, placed under
seal, or placed in the case file. Public documents may be used in press
releases and be posted on the official website of the ECCC.
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3.13. Where a document requires urgent measures to be taken, the Filing
Instructions shall indicate that the document is urgent and shall contain a short
explanation of the urgency.
3.14. The document shall be signed with a clear indication of the name of the person
who signed it.
Article 4: Contents of Documents
4.1 Documents filed before the Co-Investigating Judges or a Chamber shall
contain the following where appropriate:
a. An introduction containing the legal basis and a petition for the action or
relief sought.
b. A summary of the grounds of argument.
c. An outline of relevant facts, including a chronology where appropriate.
d. A summary of the relevant law, including extracts of relevant legal
sources.
e. The detailed legal argument.
4.2 Documents shall have as an appendix a list of authorities and copies of those
authorities as provided in article 6 below.
4.3 Any reference to a previously filed document shall include the court record
document number and ERN number in addition to the title and date of that
document.
Article 5: Length of documents
5.1 A document filed to the Investigating Judges or the Trial Chamber of the
ECCC shall not exceed 15 pages in English or French or 30 pages in Khmer,
unless otherwise provided in the Internal Rules or this Practice Direction or
ordered by the ECCC.
5.2. A document filed to the Pre-Trial Chamber or the Supreme Court Chamber of
the ECCC shall not exceed 30 pages in English or French or 60 pages in
Khmer, unless otherwise provided in the Internal Rules or this Practice
Direction or ordered by the ECCC.
5.3. Unless otherwise ordered by the ECCC, the page limit shall not exceed 100
pages in English or French or 200 pages in Khmer for the written submissions
under Rule 92 of Internal Rules and responses thereto, if any.
5.4. The Co-Investigating Judges or the relevant Chamber may, at the request of a
participant, extend the page limit in exceptional circumstances.
5.5. There shall be no page limits for the following documents:
a. Introductory Submissions (Rule 53 of the Internal Rules)
b. Supplementary Submissions (Rule 55 of the Internal Rules); and
c. Final Submissions (Rule 66 of the Internal Rules).
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Article 6: List of Authorities
6.1 Documents shall be filed with a list of the authorities referred to therein. Such
list shall include the name, date and full citation for each authority, specifying
which provisions, paragraphs or pages are relied upon, together with any
explanatory note required under this paragraph.
6.2 The List of Authorities shall contain the same information on the cover sheet
as for the document filed, as per the example in Appendix C.
6.3 Documents shall be filed with copies of all authorities listed therein, with the
exception of those documents listed in ECCC Law Compendium hosted in the
ECCC’s official website.
6.4 Where an authority exceeds 30 pages, a copy of the first page of the authority
and the relevant section of the text shall be filed along with a note in the List
of Authorities specifying that the authority exceeds 30 pages.
6.5 Where an authority has previously been filed in the same case or proceeding it
shall not be re-filed, but the person filing the later document shall indicate in
the list of authorities the title, the court record document number and the ERN
number of the document with which the authority was previously filed.
Article 7: Language and Translation of documents
7.1 All documents shall be filed in Khmer, English or French.
7.2 Any party who has made a request to receive documents in more than one
official ECCC language under Article 2.1 shall file all documents in both or
all of those languages. The Court Management Section shall ensure the timely
translation of documents filed in accordance with this Practice Direction.
Article 8: Time Limits for pleadings and applications before the Chambers
8.1 Unless otherwise provided in the Internal Rules or this Practice Direction or
ordered by a Chamber of the ECCC, pleadings shall be filed with the greffier
of the Chamber hearing the case together with the relevant authorities in
accordance with the following timetable, subject to the right in Rule 39 of the
Internal Rules to request an extension of time limits.
8.2 A Chamber may fix time limits for the filing of an application or pleadings.
Where a date for a Court hearing has already been fixed, the application or
applicant’s pleading shall be filed at least 30 calendar days prior to the Court
hearing.
8.3 Any response to an application or pleadings shall be filed together with any
list of authorities within 15 calendar days of notification, in the ECCC official
language which the party has elected under Article 2.1, of the document to
which the participant is responding.
8.4 A reply to a response shall only be permitted where there is to be no oral
argument on the request, and such reply shall be filed within 5 calendar days
of notification, in the ECCC official language which the party has elected
under Article 2.1, of the response to which the participant is replying.
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8.5 Time limits commence at the time of service of the Notification Instruction. In
all cases, where a party has requested to receive documents in more than one
official ECCC language under Article 2.1, time limits shall not commence
until the party receives the documents in all the languages requested.
Article 9: Late filing
A document may be filed outside the time limits as set out in Rule 39 of the
Internal Rules. In such cases, the person filing the document shall indicate the
reasons for the delay on the Filing Instructions. The Judges or Chamber before
which the document is filed shall decide whether to accept the document
despite its later filing.
Article 10: Deficient Filing
10.1 The relevant greffier, shall be responsible for verifying compliance with the
provisions of this Practice Direction.
10.2 Should a document not comply with the provisions of this Practice Direction,
the relevant greffier, shall complete and sign a Deficient Filing form
(Appendix D) which will be returned to the person filing the document along
with the original document for correction. The document shall only be
accepted after the mistakes have been corrected. If the document is
consequently filed outside the time limits, a copy of the Deficient Filing form
should also be lodged by way of clarification. The said document shall be filed
in accordance with Article 9 of this practice direction.
Article 11: Service of notices of documents filed
11.1 The parties shall be notified electronically of any document filed by the
relevant greffier . Parties shall notify the relevant greffier of the preferred
email address for service.
11.2 Service of a hard copy notice, where necessary, shall be effected on the same
day as the electronic notification by either the relevant greffier, or by the
Designated Officer of Court Management Section. The relevant Greffier, or
Designated Officer shall complete the ‘Acknowledgement of Service
Form’(Appendix E) upon which the document shall be deemed to have been
duly served.
11.3 Should the intended recipient not be at the address provided or should he or
she refuse to acknowledge service of the notice, the relevant greffier, or
Designated Officer shall complete the ‘Non-Service Form’ (Appendix F)
upon which the document shall be deemed to have been duly served.