2 3. On May 13, 1986, the Secretariat of the Court transmitted the application to the Government. 4. On July 23, 1986, Judge Jorge R. Hernández Alcerro informed the President of the Court that, pursuant to Article 19(2) of the Statute of the Court, he had "decided to recuse (him)self from hearing the three cases that. . . were submitted to the Inter-American Court." By a note of that same date, the President informed the Government of its right to appoint a judge ad hoc under Article 10(3) of the Statute of the Court. The Government named Rigoberto Espinal Irías to that position by note of August 21, 1986. 5. In a note of July 23, 1986, the President of the Court asked the Government to present its submissions by the end of August 1986. On August 21, 1986, the Government requested the extension of this deadline to November 1986. 6. By his Order of August 29, 1986, having heard the views of the parties, the President of the Court set October 31, 1986 as the deadline for the Government's presentation of its submissions. The President also fixed the deadlines of January 15, 1987 for the filing of the Commission's submissions and March 1, 1987 for the Government's response. 7. In its submissions of October 31, 1986, the Government objected to the admissibility of the application filed by the Commission. 8. On December 11, 1986, the President of the Court granted the Commission's request for an extension of the deadline for the presentation of its submissions to March 20, 1987 and extended the deadline for the Government's response to May 25, 1987. 9. In his Order of January 30, 1897, the President made clear that the application which gave rise to the instant proceeding should be deemed to be the Memorial provided for in Article 30(3) of the Rules of Procedure. He also specified that the deadline of March 20, 1987 granted to the Commission was the time limit set forth in Article 27(3) of the Rules for the presentation of its observations and conclusions on the preliminary objections interposed by the Government. Having heard the views of the parties, the President ordered a public hearing on June 16, 1987 for the presentation of oral arguments on the preliminary objections. The time limits for submissions on the merits were left open to allow for the possibility that the Court might decide to join the preliminary objections to the merits or, in the event they should be decided separately, that the decision adopted would result in the continuation of the proceeding. 10. By note of March 13, 1987, the Government informed the Court that because "the Order of January 30, 1987 is not restricted to matters of mere procedure nor to the determination of deadlines, but rather involves the interpretation and classification of the submissions (the Government) considers it advisable, pursuant to Article 25 of the Statute of the Court and Article 44(2) of its Rules of Procedure, for the Court to affirm the terms of the President's Order of January 30, 1987, in order to avoid further confusion between the parties. As these are the first contentious cases submitted to the Court, it is especially important to ensure strict compliance with and the correct application of the procedural rules of the Court." 11. In a motion contained in its observations of March 20, 1987, the Commission asked the President to rescind paragraph 3 of his Order of January 30, 1987 in which he had set the date for the public hearing. The Commission also observed that "in no part of its Memorial had the Government of Honduras presented its objections as preliminary objections." In its note of June 11, 1987, the Government did refer to its objections as "preliminary objections." 12. By note of May 15, 1987, the President informed the Government that "at the public hearings on the cases, the Government shall proceed first and the Commission shall follow. In presenting its case, the Government shall be free to make oral arguments and to request or