8 38. On January 27, 1999, the Court held a public hearing on preliminary objections at the headquarters of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Costa Rica. 39. On November 18, 1999, the Court entered the Judgment on preliminary objections. In such Judgment the Tribunal dismissed the preliminary objections filed by the State. 40. Through an Order of the President, of December 7, 1999, the Inter-American Commission and the State were convoked to a public hearing on the merits, which would be held at the Court’s headquarters on January 26, 2000, with the purpose of receiving the statements of the witnesses proposed by the Commission, and of the witnesses and expert witnesses offered by the State. The parties were furthered informed that they could present their final oral arguments on the merits immediately after the receipt of said evidence. 41. On December 15, 1999, pursuant to instructions from its President, the Secretariat informed the State that the evidence mentioned in item IX.d (evidence of reports) of the reply to the application, through which the Court was requested to instruct the private companies Cable & Wireless Panama, S.A., and Panama Ports Company, S.A., to prepare reports relative to the case, should be offered to the Tribunal by the State, in order that the former decide whether or not to incorporate it with the rest of the evidence. On January 26, 2000, the State sent a note signed by Mr. Jorge Nicolau, Administrative and Product Development Director of Cable & Wireless Panama, S.A., whereby it informed about the workers that said company had rehired. 42. On January 10, 2000, the State submitted the list of witnesses and expert witnesses who would appear at the public hearing on the merits. By Order of the Court of January 25, 2000, Mr. Feliciano Olmedo-Sanjur was summoned to render his statement as expert witness. 43. On January 13, 2000, the Commission submitted the list of witnesses who would depose at the public hearing on the merits, and informed that Mr. Humberto Ricord, proposed by it and convoked by the Court as a witness, would appear as an expert witness. On January 14, 2000, pursuant to instructions from the President, the Secretariat requested the State to inform whether it had any objection as to the change in the capacity in which said person would appear. On January 17, 2000, Panama expressed that it felt that the change requested by the Commission was inconvenient. On January 19, 2000, the Commission submitted a brief indicating that the purpose of the deposition of Mr. Humberto Ricord, as an expert witness specialising in labour and constitutional law and as university professor, was to clarify the facts of the complaint, and attached his resume. By Order of the Court of January 24, 2000, Mr. Humberto Ricord was convoked to render his deposition as an expert witness. 44. On January 25, 2000, the State submitted a note whereby it intended to challenge the competence of the President and requested the postponement of the public hearing on the merits. On that same day, by an Order adopted unanimously, the Court rejected this suggestion and the request to postpone the hearing.