# Council Decision (EU) 2019/117 of 21 January 2019 on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the Joint Council established under the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the SADC EPA States, of the other part, as regards the adoption of the Rules of Procedure for dispute avoidance and settlement and the Code of Conduct for arbitrators and mediators, Article 13: Amicus curiae submissions

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

1. Unless the Parties agree otherwise within five days of the date of the establishment of the arbitration panel, the arbitration panel may receive unsolicited written submissions from a natural person of a Party or a legal person established in the territory of a Party that is independent from the governments of the Parties, provided that they:
(a) are received by the arbitration panel within 10 days of the date of the establishment of the arbitration panel;
(b) are directly relevant to a factual or a legal issue under consideration by the arbitration panel;
(c) contain a description of the person making the submission, including for a natural person his or her nationality and for a legal person its place of establishment, the nature of its activities, its legal status, its general objectives and its source of financing;
(d) specify the nature of the interest that the person has in the arbitration panel proceedings; and
(e) are drafted in the languages chosen by the Parties in accordance with Article 15(1) and (2) of these Rules of Procedure.
2. The submissions shall be delivered to the Parties for their comments. The Parties may submit comments, within 10 days of the delivery, to the arbitration panel.
3. The arbitration panel shall list in its report all the submissions it has received pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article. The arbitration panel shall not be obliged to address in its report the arguments made in such submissions; however, if it does, it shall also take into account any comments made by the Parties pursuant to paragraph 2 of this Article.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2019/117/annex/I/article/13 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2019-117/annex-I/article-13
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.