1951_International_Court_of_Justice_judges_election

1951 International Court of Justice judges election

1951 International Court of Justice judges election

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The 1951 International Court of Justice election took place on 6 December 1951 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. This was the third election of Judges of the Court, one the six "principal organs", and the second one to be held in order to fill five (rather than all fifteen) judges' seats. It thus continued the pattern of triennial elections whereby the General Assembly and the Security Council concurrently elect five judges to the Court for nine-year terms, in this case beginning on 6 February 1952.

Background

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague, is one of the principal organs of the United Nations. Also known as the World Court, it adjudicates legal disputes between states, and provides advisory opinions on legal questions submitted by other UN organs or agencies.

The court consists of 15 judges, with five judges elected every three years. (In the case of death or other vacancy, a judge is elected for the remainder of the term.) Judges are required to be independent and impartial; they may not exercise any political or administrative function, and do not act as a representative of their home state.

Elections of members of the Court are governed by articles 2 through 15 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice.

The previous election was held in 1949 and resulted in the following composition of the Court:

More information Judge, Term starts / renewed ...

Thus, the 1951 election saw the seat of the deceased Judge Azevedo to be filled as an occasional vacancy for the remainder of his term, and the seats of Judges Fabela Alfaro, Hackworth, Klaestad, Krylov and de Visscher were to be contested. Technically, these would constitute two separate elections, with a separate set of candidates nominated, and the procedures regarding rounds of balloting and the number of meetings (see below) separately applied.

Election procedure

The General Assembly and the Security Council proceed, independently of one another, to elect five members of the Court (or one member, if the election is held in order to fill an occasional vacancy).

To be elected, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of votes both in the General Assembly and in the Security Council. At the time, 32 votes constituted an absolute majority in the General Assembly and 6 votes constituted an absolute majority in the Security Council (with no distinction being made between permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council).

When five candidates have obtained the required majority in one of the organs, the president of that organ notifies the president of the other organ of the names of the five candidates. The president of the latter does not communicate such names to the members of that organ until that organ itself has given five candidates the required majority of votes.

After both the General Assembly and the Security Council have produced a list of five names that received an absolute majority of the votes, the two lists are compared. Any candidate appearing on both lists is elected. But if fewer than five candidates have been thus elected, the two organs proceed, again independently of one another, at a second meeting and, if necessary, a third meeting to elect candidates by further ballots for seats remaining vacant, the results again being compared after the required number of candidates have obtained an absolute majority in each organ.

If after the third meeting, one or more seats still remain unfilled, the General Assembly and the Security Council may form a joint conference consisting of six members, three appointed by each organ, in order to elect a candidate to fill the remaining seat(s). This option had never been used prior to the 1951 elections, and would never be used up to now.

Candidates

Qualifications

Article 2 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice provides that judges shall be elected "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".

Nomination procedure

All States parties to the Statute of the ICJ had the right to propose candidates. Nominations of candidates for election to the ICJ are made by a group consisting of the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), designated by that State. For this purpose, members of the PCA act in "national groups" (i.e. all the PCA members from any individual state). (In the case of UN member states not represented in the PCA, the state in question may select up to four individuals to be its "national group" for the purpose of nominating candidates to the ICJ). Every such "national group" may nominate up to four candidates, not more than two of whom shall be of their own nationality. 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.

1951 nominees

For the occasional vacancy

The following candidates were nominated for the election in order to fill the seat of the deceased Judge Azevedo of Brazil:[2]

More information Candidates, Nominating national groups ...

For the five regular seats

The following candidates were nominated for the election:[3]

More information Candidates, Nominating national groups ...

Results

Filling the occasional vacancy

Candidates that did not receive a single vote in either the General Assembly or the Security Council are not listed.

More information Candidates, General Assembly majority = 32 ...

Levi Carneiro was thus almost unanimously elected to fill the seat that became vacant due to the death of his compatriot Judge Azevedo. This set the tradition of casual vacancies being filled by judges of the same nationality as the one of the judge having deceased or resigned. The tradition has been followed since then, with very few exceptions.

Filling regular seats

Candidates that did not receive a single vote in either the General Assembly or the Security Council are not listed.

More information Candidates, General Assembly majority = 32 ...

In the General Assembly, four candidates, Messrs Hackworth, Armand-Ugón, Golunsky and Rau, received an absolute majority after the first round of voting. The Assembly then proceeded to select the fifth candidate to be included on its list, before it being compared with the list of the Security Council. After the second ballot was inconclusive, the chairman recalled a rule of procedure that provided for the next round of voting to be limited to two candidates with the highest number of votes. The third round was thus restricted to Mr Klaestad and Mr de Visscher. Mr Klaestad received the required majority.

In the Security Council, 6 candidates obtained an absolute majority of votes in the first round, of whom three candidates received 7 votes and three other candidates received more than 7 votes. A discussion then ensued as to whether the next round of voting should be an open-ended one or whether it should be limited to selecting 2 out of 3 candidates who had received 7 votes, with the other three considered as already having been selected. It was decided that an open-ended vote should be taken. Five candidates received an absolute majority in the second round.

As the two lists thus produced contained the same five candidates, those candidates were declared elected to the Court, without a need for further rounds of voting.

Aftermath

The composition of the Court following the election was as follows:

More information Judge, Term starts / renewed ...

The seats of Judges Álvarez, Basdevant, Guerrero, McNair and Carneiro were to be contested at the 1954 election.

References

  1. [1]
    The Chinese seat at the UN was at the time occupied by the Taiwan-based Republic of China. For details, see here
  2. [2]
    "UN document A/1877-S/2338. Election of members of the International Court of Justice: list of candidates nominated by the national groups". United Nations.
  3. [3]
    "UN document A/1879-S/2339. Election of members of the International Court of Justice: list of candidates nominated by the national groups". United Nations.
  4. [4]
    "UN document A/PV.350. General Assembly. 350th plenary meeting". United Nations.
  5. [5]
    "UN document S/PV.567. Security Council. Official records. 567th meeting". United Nations.
  6. [6]
    Elected to fill an occasional vacancy
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