Fifteen judges, nine-year terms: how the bench of the International Court of Justice is filled

Background

The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, is composed of 15 judges elected to nine-year terms of office by the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. These two organs vote simultaneously but separately, and a candidate must receive an absolute majority of the votes in both bodies, which sometimes makes several rounds of voting necessary. To ensure a degree of continuity, one third of the Court is elected every three years, and judges elected at a triennial election commence their term of office on 6 February of the following year. The Court then holds a secret ballot to elect a President and a Vice-President to hold office for three years. Candidates are proposed not by governments but by national groups of the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; each group may propose up to four candidates, no more than two of whom may be of its own nationality. The Court may not include more than one national of the same State, and as a whole must represent the main forms of civilization and the principal legal systems of the world. Its seat is at the Peace Palace in the Hague, making it the only one of the six principal organs of the United Nations not located in New York.