Day 239 - 23 Apr 96 - Page 02
1 Tuesday, 23rd April 1996
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The case need not be called on. We will go
4 anonymous today. It is a matter of form for the Associate
5 to call the name of the case before the proceedings
6 commence, but I do not think things will be declared
7 invalid because of that.
8
9 MR. RAMPTON: I think we know which case it is.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I hope so!
12
13 MR. RAMPTON: If that is so, can I say something before
14 Mr. Monbiot is called. I do not know what course the
15 Defendants are proposing to adopt. If they should be
16 intending to do what they did yesterday, which was to read
17 out Mr. Monbiot's various statements and his addendum, I
18 would have something to say about the propriety of that so
19 far as his first statement is concerned at least, for this
20 reason, that apart from two and a bit paragraphs, it seems
21 to be concerned exclusively with the effects of the cattle
22 ranching on the Brazilian rainforest in the Amazon. That
23 is not an issue in this case.
24
25 Therefore, 90 percent of the first statement is irrelevant
26 and inadmissible. The relevant pleading to which your
27 Lordship gave leave on 27th July of last year is on the
28 third page of the Environmental Tab in the Abstract.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I read that through again.
31
32 MR. RAMPTON: Yes. There is a passage in the first statement on
33 the second page, two passages arguably, which are relevant,
34 plainly, and those are the two up from G and the one above
35 it towards the bottom of the page. Possibly, though this
36 remains to be seen, the short paragraph about cerrado
37 forest but we will have to wait and see about that.
38
39 For the rest, it is concerned exclusively, as far as I can
40 tell, with the effects of cattle ranching in the rainforest
41 in the Amazon and that is not a part of this case.
42
43 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I propose to do is I propose to let the
44 Defendants read the statements. I have got very much your
45 point in mind, but what concerns me is the knock-on effect
46 on the rainforest, as I described it in my ruling, is still
47 live.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: Yes.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Going through it, quite frankly, one can take
52 a paragraph out here and a paragraph out there, but I just
53 want it read.
54
55 In the case of this witness, anyway, I am not attracted by
56 the idea of taking a paragraph out here and a paragraph out
57 there.
58
59 MR. RAMPTON: I was going to suggest an alternative.
60
