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Chapter III
General Procedural Provisions

Rule 19
Procedural Orders

The Commission shall make the orders required for the conduct of the proceeding.

Rule 20
Preliminary Procedural Consultation

(1) As early as possible after the constitution of a Commission, its President shall endeavor to ascertain the views of the parties regarding questions of procedure. For this purpose he may request the parties to

(a) the number of members of the Commission required to constitute a quorum at its sittings;

(b) the language or languages to be used in the proceeding;

(c) the evidence, oral or written, which each party intends to produce or to request the Commission to call for, and the written statements which each party intends to file, as well as the time limits within which such evidence should be produced and such statements filed;

(d) the number of copies desired by each party of instruments filed by the other; and

(e) the manner in which the record of the hearings shall be kept.

(2) In the conduct of the proceeding the Commission shall apply any agreement between the parties on procedural matters, except as otherwise provided in the Convention or the Administrative and Financial Regulations.

Rule 21
Procedural Languages

(1) The parties may agree on the use of one or two languages to be used in the proceeding, provided that, if they agree on any language that is not an official language of the Centre, the Commission, after consultation with the Secretary-General, gives its approval. If the parties do not agree on any such procedural language, each of them may select one of the official languages (i.e., English, French and Spanish) for this purpose.

(2) If two procedural languages are selected by the parties, any instrument may be filed in either language. Either language may be used at the hearings, subject, if the Commission so requires, to translation and interpretation. The recommendations and the report of the Commission shall be rendered and the record kept in both procedural languages, both versions being equally authentic.