ABSTRACT
It is clear that, in the same legal system, there cannot at the same time exist two rules relating to the same facts and attaching to these facts contradictory consequences ... It is for instance impossible that the relations between the two states should be governed at one and the same time by a rule to the effect that, if certain conditions are fulfilled, the Court has jurisdiction and by another rule to the effect that, if certain conditions are fulfilled, the Court has no jurisdiction – by a rule to the effect that in certain circumstances the state concerned may have recourse to the Court and by another to the effect that in the same circumstances the state has no right to do so, etc, etc. In cases of this kind, either the contradiction is only apparent and the two rules are really co-ordinated so that each has its own sphere of application and does not encroach on the sphere of application of the other, or else one prevails over the other, ie, is applicable to the exclusion of the other.5
