Statute of the International Court of Justice

Chapter I. Organization of the Court.

Article 2. The Court shall be composed of a body of independent judges.
elected regardless of their nationality from among persons of high moral
character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective
countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are
jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law.

Article 3.(1) The Court shall consist of fifteen members, no two of whom
may be nationals of the same state.

(2) A person who for the purposes of membership in the Court be regarded as
a national of more than one state shall be deemed to be a national of the
one in which he ordinarily exercises civil and political rights.

Article 4.(1) The members of the Court shall be elected by the General
Assembly and by the Security Council from a list of persons nominated by
the national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration , in accordance
with the following provisions.

(2) In the case of Members of the United Nations not represented in the
Permanent Court of Arbitration , candidates shall be nominated by national
groups appointed for this purpose by their governments under the same
conditions as those prescribed for members of the Permanent Court of
Arbitration by Article 44 of the Convention of The Hague of 1907 for the
pacific settlement of international disputes.

(3) The conditions under which a state which is a party to the present
Statute but is not a Member of the United Nations may participate in
electing the members of the Court shall, in the absence of a special
agreement, be laid down by the General Assembly upon recommendation of
the Security Council.

Article 5.(1) At least three months before the date of the election, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations shall address a written request to
the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration belonging to the states
which are parties to the present Statute, and to the members of the
national groups appointed under Article 4, paragraph 2, inviting them to
undertake, within a given time, by national groups, the nomination of
persons in a position to accept the duties of a member of the Court.

(2) No group may nominate more than four persons, not more than two of whom
shall be of their own nationality, In no case may the number of candidates
nominated by a group be more than double the number of seats to be filled.
Article 6. Before making these nominations, each national group is
recommended to consult its highest court of justice, its legal faculties
and schools of law, and its national academies and national sections of
international academies devoted to the study of law.

Article 7.(1) The Secretary-General shall prepare a list in alphabetical
order of all the persons thus nominated. Save as provided in Article 12,
paragraph 2, these shall be the only persons eligible.

(2) The Secretary-General shall submit this list to the General Assembly
and to the Security Council.

Article 8. The General Assembly and the Security Council shall proceed
independently of one another to elect the members of the Court.

Article 9. At every election, the electors shall bear in mind not only that
the person to be elected should individually possess the qualifications
required, but also that in the body as a whole the representation of the
main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world
should be assured.

Article 10. (1) Those candidates who obtain an absolute majority of votes
in the General Assembly and in the Security Council shall be considered as
elected.

(2) Any vote of the Security Council, whether for the election of judges or
for the appointment of members of the conference envisaged in Article 12,
shall be taken without any distinction between permanent and non-permanent
members of the Security Council.

(3) In the event of more than one national of the same state obtaining an
absolute majority of the votes both of the General Assembly and of the
Security Council, the eldest of these only shall be considered as elected.

Article 11. If, after the first meeting held for the purpose of the
election, one or more seats remain to be filled, a second and, if
necessary, a third meeting shall take place.

Article 12. (1) If, after the third meeting, one or more seats still remain
unfilled, a joint conference consisting of six members, three appointed by
the General Assembly and three by the Security Council, may be formed at
any time at the request of either the General Assembly or the Security
Council, for the purpose of choosing by the vote of an absolute majority
one name for each seat still vacant, to submit to the General Assembly and
the Security Council for their respective acceptance.

(2) If the joint conference is unanimously agreed upon any person who
fulfils the required conditions, he may be included in its list, even
though he was not included in the list of nominations referred to in
Article 7.

(3) If the joint conference is satisfied that it will not be successful in
procuring an election, those members of the Court who have already been
elected shall, within a period to be fixed by the Security Council, proceed
to fill the vacant seats by selection from among those candidates who have
obtained votes either in the General Assembly or in the Security Council.

(4) In the event of an equality of votes among the judges, the eldest judge
shall have a casting vote.

Article 13.(1) The members of the Court shall be elected for nine years and
may be re-elected; provided, however, that of the judges elected at the
first election, the terms of judges shall expire at the end of thee years
and the terms of five more judges shall expire at the end of six years.

(2) The judges whose terms are to expire at the end of the above-mentioned
initial periods of three and six years shall be chosen by lot to be drawn
by the Secretary-General immediately after the first election has been
completed.

(3) The members of the Court shall continue to discharge their duties until
their places have been filled. Though replaced, they shall finish any cases
which they may have begun.

(4) In the case of the resignation of a member of the Court, the
resignation shall be addressed to the President of the Court for
transmission to the Secretary-General. This last notification makes the
place vacant.

Article 14. Vacancies shall be filled by the same method as that laid down
for the first election, subject to the following provision: the
Secretary-General shall, within one month of the occurrence of the vacancy,
proceed to issue the invitations provided for in Article 5, and the date of
the election shall be fixed by the Security Council.

Article 15. A member of the Court elected to replace a member whose term of
office has not expired shall hold office for the remainder of his
predecessor’s term.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Permanent Court of Arbitration, Statute of the International Court of Justice.