1948 International Court of Justice judges election

The 1948 International Court of Justice election took place on 22 October 1948 in the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. This was the second ever election of Judges of the Court, one the six "principal organs" of the United Nations, and the first one to be held in order to fill five (rather than all fifteen) judges' seats. It thus launched 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 1949.

Background

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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, the first of its kind, was held in 1946 and resulted in the following composition of the Court:

Judge Term starts /
renewed
Term ends
Egypt Abdel Hamid Badawi Pasha (Egypt) 1946 1949
China Hsu Mo (Republic of China)[1] 1946 1949
Canada John Read (Canada) 1946 1949
Poland Bohdan Winiarski (Poland) 1946 1949
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia) 1946 1949
Mexico Isidro Fabela Alfaro (Mexico) 1946 1952
United States Green Hackworth (United States) 1946 1952
Norway Helge Klæstad (Norway) 1946 1952
Soviet Union Sergei Krylov (USSR) 1946 1952
Belgium Charles de Visscher (Belgium) 1946 1952
Chile Alejandro Álvarez (Chile) 1946 1955
Brazil Philadelpho Azevedo (Brazil) 1946 1955
France Jules Basdevant (France) 1946 1955
El Salvador Jose Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador) 1946 1955
United Kingdom Arnold McNair (United Kingdom) 1946 1955

The seats of Judges Badawi Pasha, Hsu, Read, Winiarski and Zoričić were thus to be contested. All of these five incumbents were candidates for re-election.

Candidates

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Qualifications

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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

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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.

1948 nominees

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Procedure

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As the 1948 election was only the second occasion for the respective rules of procedure to be applied, some aspects of the procedure were yet to be finalized.

According to the Statute, ICJ judges are elected through parallel procedures at the General Assembly and the Security Council. 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, 30 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).

Results

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Meeting 1

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

Candidates General Assembly [2]
majority = 30
Security Council [3]
majority = 6
R1 R2 R3 R4 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6
China Hsu Mo (Republic of China)[1] 48 - - - 10 - - - - -
Egypt Abdel Hamid Badawi Pasha (Egypt) 43 - - - 9 - - - - -
Canada John Erskine Read (Canada) 37 - - - 6 - - - - -
Poland Bohdan Winiarski (Poland) 24 27 29 33 6 - - - - -
Greece Jean Spiropoulos (Greece) 20 20 25 31 3 2 3 2 1 1
India Benegal Narsing Rau (India) 19 13 15 14 2 3 4 5 5 6
Iran Mostafa Adl (Iran) 18 10 5 3 3 0 0 0 0 0
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia) 17 20 22 21 5 2 1 1 2 2
Czechoslovakia Ladislav Hobza [cz] (Czechoslovakia) 8 8 7 7 2 3 3 3 3 2
Italy Massimo Pilotti (Italy) 7 3 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
Post-independence Burma (1948–1962) E.Maung (Burma) 5 2 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
Thailand Wan Waithayakon (Siam) 5 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Turkey Cemil Bilsel (Turkey) 4 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
Panama Ricardo J. Alfaro (Panama) 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Argentina Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina) 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Australia Herbert Vere Evatt (Australia) 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Syria Fares al-Khoury (Syria) 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Guatemala Carlos Leonidas Acevedo (Guatemala) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Philippines Claro M. Recto (Philippines) 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Turkey Muammer Raşit Seviğ (Turkey) 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Colombia Mr Yepes (Colombia) 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
Italy Dionisio Anzilotti (Italy) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Bolivia Tomás Manuel Elío (Bolivia) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pakistan Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (Pakistan) 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Guatemala Miguel Prado Solares (Guatemala) 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Philippines Mr Reyes (Philippines) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Guatemala Eugenio Silva Peña (Guatemala) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Iran Ahmad Matin-Daftari (Iran) 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

The General Assembly and the Security Council, independently from each other, each held several rounds of voting until 5 candidates received an absolute majority of votes. After 5 candidates did so both in the Assembly and the Council, the lists were compared, and the 4 candidates whose names appeared on both lists, Messrs Hsu, Badawi Pasha, Read and Winiarski, were declared elected. The fifth vacancy was to be filled after further rounds of voting.

Meeting 2

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Candidates General Assembly [4]
majority = 30
Security Council [5]
majority = 6
R1 R2 R3 R1 R2
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia) 22 28 37 5 7
Greece Jean Spiropoulos (Greece) 19 16 12 3 3
India Benegal Narsing Rau (India) 10 7 4 3 1
Czechoslovakia Ladislav Hobza [cz] (Czechoslovakia) 1 0 0 0 0

Mr Zoričić having received an absolute majority of votes both in the Assembly and in the Council, was elected to fill the fifth vacancy.

Aftermath

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All the five incumbent judges whose terms were to expire, were re-elected to the Court. The composition of the Court thus remained unchanged from the previous election:

Judge Term starts /
renewed
Term ends
Mexico Isidro Fabela Alfaro (Mexico) 1946 1952
United States Green Hackworth (United States) 1946 1952
Norway Helge Klæstad (Norway) 1946 1952
Soviet Union Sergei Krylov (USSR) 1946 1952
Belgium Charles de Visscher (Belgium) 1946 1952
Chile Alejandro Álvarez (Chile) 1946 1955
Brazil Philadelpho Azevedo (Brazil) 1946 1955
France Jules Basdevant (France) 1946 1955
El Salvador Jose Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador) 1946 1955
United Kingdom Arnold McNair (United Kingdom) 1946 1955
Egypt Abdel Hamid Badawi Pasha (Egypt) 1946, 1949 1958
China Hsu Mo (Republic of China)[1] 1946, 1949 1958
Canada John Read (Canada) 1946, 1949 1958
Poland Bohdan Winiarski (Poland) 1946, 1949 1958
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia) 1946, 1949 1958

The seats of Judges Alfaro, Hackworth, Klaestad, Krylov and de Visscher were to be contested at the 1951 election.

References

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  1. ^ a b c The Chinese seat at the UN was at the time occupied by the Taiwan-based Republic of China. For details, see here
  2. ^ "UN document A/PV.152. General Assembly. 152nd plenary meeting". United Nations.
  3. ^ "UN document S/PV.369. Security Council. Official records. 369th meeting". United Nations.
  4. ^ "UN document A/PV.153. General Assembly. 153rd plenary meeting". United Nations.
  5. ^ "UN document S/PV.371. Security Council. Official records. 371st meeting". United Nations.