Day 182 - 02 Nov 95 - Page 02
1 Thursday, 2nd November, 1995
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes?
4
5 MR. MORRIS: I call our witness, Mr. Jenssen.
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Let us see where we are going first.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: Can I, before that, just say a few words? I have
10 no objection to Mr. Jenssen giving oral evidence about the
11 additional matters which have been notified to us.
12 However -- and this is not just a technical point -- both
13 with his original statement and now, served on me five
14 minutes ago, are a number of documents in Norwegian.
15 I take it that Mr. Jenssen, himself, speaks good enough
16 English for us not to have to have an interpreter.
17
18 So far as the documents are concerned, however, they cannot
19 be admitted in evidence unless and until they are
20 translated. The reason for that is, as your Lordship
21 knows, since about the middle of the 14th century until the
22 Welsh Language Act made an exception in relation to
23 proceedings in Welsh in Wales, the language of these courts
24 is English, and no other.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Look, let us just look at your sheet of
27 notes. I am grateful for what Mr. Rampton has said. It
28 seems to me that it would be sensible that you should ask
29 Mr. Jenssen about the matters under the first heading. No
30 doubt, it is only to be anticipated that you would ask him
31 about his responses to specific allegations in Mr. Holm's
32 statements; and in a sense, it is unrealistic to have
33 Mr. Jenssen here and not to ask him that. But then what
34 are you expecting to do so far as documents which are in
35 Norwegian are concerned?
36
37 MR. MORRIS: They are really provided for the benefit of the
38 court, if there is anything that has changed. I mean,
39 those appendices relate to the first section, as it says
40 here, "the improvements going by union recognition based on
41 legal statutes and agreements". He has brought the legal
42 statutes and agreements. Mr. Jenssen, as the union
43 representative, obviously, is familiar with all the
44 relevant legal statutes and agreements, but it was felt
45 helpful to court to have those available. If any of the
46 particular sections need a formal translation at a later
47 date to check them, if they seem to be challenged or are
48 extremely significant, then we will endeavour to do that,
49 but I think it is only a matter of courtesy that we brought
50 them.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think that is fair enough, but let us see
53 how we go. For a start, I cannot sensibly or fairly --
54 quite apart from any legal consideration -- pay attention
55 to any part of a document when I do not have the whole. So
56 if, for instance, Mr. Jenssen translated one sentence of a
57 letter which he thought was relevant, or you thought it
58 was, I really could not attach any weight to that unless
59 I knew what all the rest said, either. At the moment, I am
60 not going to do that.
