The 2017 International Court of Justice election took place from 9 to 20 November 2017 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. In the set of triennial elections, 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 2018. From the seven candidates, the five winners were Abdulqawi Yusuf (Somalia), Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (Brazil), Nawaf Salam (Lebanon), Ronny Abraham (France) and Dalveer Bhandari (India).

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.

Prior to the election, the composition of the Court was as follows:

Judge Term starts / renewed Term ends Ronny Abraham, President 2005, 2009 2018 Abdulqawi Yusuf, Vice-President 2009 2018 Christopher Greenwood 2009 2018 Dalveer Bhandari 2012 2018 Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade 2009 2018 Peter Tomka 2003, 2012 2021 Hisashi Owada 2003, 2012 2021 Xue Hanqin 2010, 2012 2021 Julia Sebutinde 2012 2021 Giorgio Gaja 2012 2021 Mohamed Bennouna 2006, 2015 2024 Joan Donoghue 2010,Elected to fill an occasional vacancy 2015 2024 Patrick Lipton Robinson 2015 2024 Kirill Gevorgian 2015 2024 James Crawford 2015 2024

Unusually, all the five judges whose term was to expire were candidates for re-election.

Candidates

Qualifications Article 2 of the Statute of the ICJ 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 Nominations of candidates for election to the ICJ are made by individuals who sit on the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).Statute of the International Court of Justice , articles 4 and 5. For this purpose, members of the PCA act in "national groups" (i.e. all the PCA members from any individual country). (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.Statute of the International Court of Justice , article 5, paragraph 2. 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.Statute of the International Court of Justice , article 6.

2017 nominees By a communication dated 1 February 2017, the Secretary-General of the United Nations invited the "national groups" to undertake the nomination of persons as judges of the ICJ, and submit the nominations no later than 3 July 2017.

The nominated candidates for the 2017 election (grouped according to the informal distribution of seats among United Nations Regional Groups) were as follows:

Regional group Vacancy Candidate Nominating national groups Africa Abdulqawi Yusuf Chaloka Beyani Zambia Abdulqawi Yusuf Australia, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Somalia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United KingdomAsia-Pacific Dalveer Bhandari Dalveer Bhandari Australia, Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Israel Nawaf Salam France, Lebanon GRULAC Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden WEOG Ronny Abraham Ronny Abraham Australia, Austria, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom Christopher Greenwood Christopher Greenwood Australia, Austra, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), China, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States

Election procedure The General Assembly and the Security Council proceed, independently of one another, to elect five members of the Court.

To be elected, a candidate must obtain an absolute majority of votes both in the General Assembly and in the Security Council. The words “absolute majority” are interpreted as meaning a majority of all electors, whether or not they vote or are allowed to vote. Thus 97 votes constitute an absolute majority in the General Assembly and 8 votes constitute an absolute majority in the Security Council (with no distinction being made between permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council).

Only those candidates whose names appear on the ballot papers are eligible for election. Each elector in the General Assembly and in the Security Council may vote for not more than five candidates on the first ballot and, on subsequent ballots for five less the number of candidates who have already obtained an absolute majority.

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 (as happened in 2017), 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. This joint conference may, by an absolute majority, agree upon one name for each seat still vacant and submit the name for the respective acceptance of the General Assembly and the Security Council. If the joint conference is unanimously agreed, it may submit the name of a person not included in the list of nominations, provided that candidate fulfills the required conditions of eligibility to be a judge on the ICJ.

If the General Assembly and the Security Council ultimately are unable to fill one or more vacant seats, then the judges of the ICJ who have already been elected shall 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. In the event of a tie vote among the judges, the eldest judge shall have a casting vote.

Election Day 1: meeting 1

The first meeting in order to elect judges of the Court was held simultaneously at the General Assembly and the Security Council on 9 November 2017. The Zambian delegation withdrew the candidacy of Chaloka Beyani prior to the first round of voting.

CandidateGeneral Assembly majority = 97Security Council majority = 8R1R2R3R4R5R1R2R3R4 Ronny Abraham 165159 144 137 139 15 15 15 15 Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade 153 150 131 131 127 11 11 8 10 Dalveer Bhandari 149 141 120 121118 11 10 9 7 Nawaf Salam 148 150 136 136 135 11 11 10 12 Christopher Greenwood 147 137 109 10296 14 13 13 12 Abdulqawi Yusuf 144 141 141 136 135 12 12 11 10 Sources:

During the first three rounds of balloting at the Security Council and the first four rounds of balloting at the General Assembly, all six candidates received an absolute majority of votes. Therefore, each body proceeded to further rounds of balloting until only five candidates received majority support.

After each body chose five candidates, the lists were compared, resulting in Ronny Abraham, Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf and Nawaf Salam being elected to the Court after receiving majority support in both bodies. The General Assembly and Security Council then proceeded to another meeting in order to fill the fifth vacant seat, choosing between Dalveer Bhandari and Christopher Greenwood.

Day 1: meeting 2

After the first meeting was inconclusive, the Council and the Assembly convened a second meeting on the same day.

CandidateGA SC Dalveer Bhandari Christopher Greenwood

No candidate received the required absolute majorities in both bodies.

Day 2: meetings 3 to 7

After several rounds of voting on 9 November 2017 left one seat vacant, the General Assembly and the Security Council reconvened in order to fill that remaining vacancy, on 13 November 2017. Several rounds of voting were held, each one technically constituting a separate meeting of each body. In all rounds of voting Dalveer Bhandari received the majority of votes in the General Assembly and Christopher Greenwood received the majority of votes in the Security Council (note that the total number of votes at the Security Council was 14 rather than 15, as one of the members abstained at every round of voting). After the first round of voting on 13 November, technically the 3rd meeting of these elections, the statutory possibility emerged to convene a joint conference of representatives of the Assembly and the Council; however, no delegation raised the matter during the third or any subsequent meeting.

CandidateMeeting 3Meeting 4Meeting 5Meeting 6Meeting 7GASCGASCGASCGASCGASC Dalveer Bhandari11051135111511851215 Christopher Greenwood799769799729689 Sources:

Day 3: meeting 8

After several inconclusive rounds of voting on 13 November 2017, the Assembly and the Council postponed the procedure. They reconvened in order to fill the remaining vacant seat at the Court on 20 November 2017. Prior to the meeting the UK withdrew the candidacy of Christopher Greenwood. Dalveer Bhandari was elected to the last vacant seat.

CandidateMeeting 8GASC Dalveer Bhandari18315 Sources:

Aftermath

After the election, the composition of the Court was as follows:

Judge Term starts / renewed Term ends Peter Tomka 2003, 2012 2021 Hisashi Owada 2003, 2012 2021 Xue Hanqin 2010, 2012 2021 Julia Sebutinde 2012 2021 Giorgio Gaja 2012 2021 Mohamed Bennouna 2006, 2015 2024 Joan Donoghue 2010, 2015 2024 Patrick Lipton Robinson 2015 2024 Kirill Gevorgian 2015 2024 James Crawford 2015 2024 Ronny Abraham 2005, 2009, 2018 2027 Abdulqawi Yusuf 2009, 2018 2027 Nawaf Salam 2018 2027 Dalveer Bhandari 2012, 2018 2027 Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade 2009, 2018 2027