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The 1987 Elections to the International Court of Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Edward G. Lee  and
Edward McWhinney
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Extract

The Statute of the International Court of Justice specifies that the nominations of candidates for election to the Court shall be made by “national groups” constituted either by the national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PGA), or by national groups appointed for this purpose “under the same conditions” as those prescribed for members of the PCA under the Hague Convention of 1907. As of May 1987, about half the member states of the United Nations — seventy-six out of one hundred and fifty-eight — were members of the PCA, but among these only sixty-two had functioning national groups. Official United Nations documents show that a great many national groups from other states, perhaps created on an ad hoc basis for the regular elections to the Court, submit nominations as provided under Article 4(2) of the Statute. Once a candidate has been nominated by one or more national groups, the state of which he is a national is free to decide whether formally to sponsor his candidacy and to seek the support of other states in the elections to be held in the General Assembly and the Security Council.

Type
Notes and Comments / Notes et commentaires
Information
Canadian Yearbook of International Law/Annuaire canadien de droit international , Volume 25 , 1988 , pp. 379 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Council on International Law / Conseil Canadien de Droit International, representing the Board of Editors, Canadian Yearbook of International Law / Comité de Rédaction, Annuaire Canadien de Droit International 1988

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References

1 Statute of the International Court of Justice, Art. 4(2).

2 Rapport du Conseil Administratif de la Cour Permanente d’Arbitrage (1987).

3 U.N. General Assembly/Security Council, А/42/589, S/19156, October 8, 1987.

4 Ibid., A./42/590; S/19157, October 8, 1987.

5 Statute of the International Court of Justice, Art. 2.

6 Ibid., Art. 6.

7 The current members of the Canadian national group are Mme Justice Bertha Wilson of the Supreme Court of Canada; Mr. Yves Fortier, Q.C., of the Montreal firm of Ogilvy, Renault; Professor Edward McWhinney, Q.C.; and Mr. Edward G. Lee, Q.C. Mr. Lee was appointed to the national group on October 13, 1987 to complete the term of Mr. Léonard H. Legault, formerly-Legal Adviser of the Department of External Affairs and currently Minister (Economic) at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, who resigned after the national group made its nominations for the 1987 regular elections.

8 Ibid., Art. 5(2).

9 Ibid., Art. 5(1).

10 Ibid., Art. 8. As pointed out by Maurice Copithorne, although the results of voting in the General Assembly and Security Council are not officially com-municated to the other body until after the election process, informal communication of results does take place and undoubtedly influences voting to some degree. See Copithorne, , “The Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Election of Members of the International Court of Justice,” 16 Canadian Yearbook of International Law 332 (1978).Google Scholar

11. Ibid., Art. 10 (2).

12 Ibid., Art. 10(a).

13 I.C.J. Reports 1966, p. 6.

14 Discussed in more detail in McWhinney, , “Law, Politics and ‘Regionalism’ in the Nomination and Election of World Court Judges,” 13 Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 1 (1986)Google Scholar; McWhinney, , The International Court of Justice and the Western Tradition of International Law 78–83 (1987).Google Scholar And see also Documents on the International Court of Justice (Rosenne, ed., 1974) ; Rosenne, , The International Court of Justice: An Essay in Political and Legal Theory (1961).Google Scholar

15 Statute of the International Court of Justice, Arts. 13(4), 14, and 15.

16 UN General Assembly/Security Council A/41/1002, S/19062, August 20, 1987.