How are the judges of the International Court of Justice appointed — and where have they come from?

ICJ judges are elected to nine-year terms by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council voting separately, with a candidate needing an absolute majority in both. Seats are not formally reserved for any country. In practice, though, the permanent members of the Security Council have held a seat on the Court for almost its entire history — with only a handful of exceptions — despite there being no rule requiring it.

The “Western European and Others” group has consistently been over-represented on the Court, both as a group and relative to its share of world population.

This is worth understanding for the same reason the veto is: the composition of the institutions that adjudicate international law shapes what international law is able to do.

Judges of the International Court of Justice — background and full list.

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It’s Time for UN Security Council Reform

Shared by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) in the interest of understanding the systems and structures of international justice, law and human rights.