PREAMBLE

I. I have been requested by the Republic of Ecuador to provide an expert opinion. I have been for twenty years and more associated with international judicial activity, first as Registrar of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (15 years) and then as a judge of the U.N. Administrative Tribunal (3 years) and as a judge of the Commonwealth Secretariat Tribunal (2 1/2, years). I have also been a Full Professor of Law in the University of Ceylon and an Adjunct Professor of International Law at the American University Law School in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. I have written several books published in Europe, on the jurisdiction of international tribunals. I have since 1951 been a member of the prestigious lnstitut de droit international. My detailed curriculum vitae is attached to this opinion.