We have already mentioned the positions of Mr Lazarenko and Mr Kiritchenko as the previous Prime Minister and his adviser; it appears that they and the other personal applicants are all leading members of the main opposition party "Hromada, with which party the two applicant companies (of which one is said to be the largest privately owned company in the Ukraine) are closely associated. In the case of Mr Uoti, his case is that a substantial volume of documentation has already been disclosed, and that the application under the same notice for further documentation with reference to companies which were not named in the original Notice is either ultra vires or oppressive.

The question of standing was not raised in McMahon or Century, although the Deputy Bailiff did recognise a possible right in the recipient of the Notice to apply for a declaration as to the meaning of its terms, which could be taken as having recognised standing in the recipient alone, nor was it raised in the Doleance application in the Isle of Man to which we refer later. Advocate Robey who appeared for the Procureur at the first hearing raised it in the present case by his written case and in oral argument.

We are satisfied that there is no reason at this stage for us to hold that, assuming the nature of the remedy sought requires it, the Applicants in this matter lack standing. We express ourselves in this guarded way, bearing in mind that Lord Wilberforce in Reg -v- IRC ex.p. National Federation of Self-Employed and Small Businesses Ltd [1982] AC 627 at p.630 warned against the adoption of a practice of taking this as a preliminary point except in the simplest cases. we find none of these cases simple. Furthermore, the standing of the Applicants could depend on the nature of the relief sought, as Lord Wilberforce explained by reference to the old cases which survived the introduction of Judicial Review and the terms of RSC Order 35 (an order without any Guernsey equivalent).