BOSPHORUS HAVA YOLLARI TURİZM VE TİCARET ANONİM ŞİRKETİ v. IRELAND JUDGMENT 35 considered to infringe the Convention, the national courts and this Court, rather than the ECJ, would be the final arbiters. 119. For these reasons, the applicant company maintained that the exercise of discretion by the Irish authorities as described above regarding the impoundment of its aircraft should be reviewed by this Court for its compatibility with the Convention. 2. Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 120. The applicant company maintained that the interference with its possessions (the impoundment) amounted to a deprivation which could not be described as “temporary” given its impact. It was also unlawful, since the Government had not produced any documentary evidence of the legal basis for the interference and since implementing Statutory Instrument no. 144 of 1993, indicating which authority was competent to impound, was not adopted until after the impoundment. 121. Moreover, such an interference was unjustified because it was not in accordance with the “general principles of international law” within the meaning of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 and because it left an innocent party to bear an individual and excessive burden, as the Government had failed to strike a fair balance between the general interest (the international community's interest in putting an end to a war and the associated significant human rights violations and breaches of humanitarian law) and the individual damage (the significant economic loss of an innocent party). In particular, the applicant company considered that certain factors distinguished its case from AGOSI and Air Canada (both cited above). It also considered unjustifiable the situation which obtained after the adoption of Regulation (EC) no. 2472/94 (its aircraft remained grounded while those of JAT could fly). Compensation was an important element in the overall justification and its absence in a de facto deprivation situation generally amounted to a disproportionate interference. This was especially so in the present case, as the aim of the sanctions regime could have been achieved while paying it compensation. Finally, the applicant company made a number of allegations concerning the State's relationship with TEAM and argued, notably, that the Government's failure to prosecute TEAM (when, inter alia, the Sanctions Committee had recognised that TEAM had broken the sanctions regime) highlighted the unjustifiable nature of the applicant company's position, a foreign company innocent of any wrongdoing. In this latter respect, the applicant company reaffirmed its bona fides, replied in detail to the Government's allegations of bad faith and pointed out that all the courts before which the case was examined had confirmed its innocence.