Commercial Court Division
national laws as opposed to International laws or obligations when the two are in
conflict.
In this regard, I was referred to the speech of Diplock L. J. in the case of Saloman
V Commissioner of Customs & Excise [1966] 3 ALL E.R. 871.
If the arrangement, however called, was a breach of Uganda’s International
obligations under ITU, then, I agree that such breach of an International obligation
under ITU then is not justiciable in our national courts unless the ITU treaty had been
domesticated under Ugandan law. That notwithstanding, it does not put Uganda in
good stead to claim that breached its international treaty obligations. That is by
deliberately exercising sovereign or executive power to break its ITU obligations to
enter into an arrangement with Gemtel! However, as found above, this arrangement
also failed the test of national law which coincidentally is the minimum requirement of
Article 9 of the ITU Regulations in such a situation.
At best the arrangement with Gemtel was an ad hoc temporary measure between the
parties and players involved.
Before I leave this issue, I need to express my surprise over the way this
arrangement was handled as though there was no precedent for it; whereas there is.
The GOSS is an autonomous region in the Southern part of the Sudan as a result of
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005 signed in Nairobi. Following a
nation wide referendum held on the 7th February, 2011, the GOSS shall become an
independent state on the 9th July, 2011. This information is all in the public domain.
A direct parallel can be made with the Palestinian Authority (PA) which as a result of
the Oslo Accords of 1993 has limited autonomy over certain territories whose
telephone calls were routed through the Israel Country Code 972 (See Exhibit D.24).
However, in 1998, the PA was granted an observer status as a non voting member of
the ITU.
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