1954 International Court of Justice judges election

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 full election was held in 1951.

On 27 November 1953, an election was held in order to fill the occasional vacancy following the resignation of the Soviet judge Sergei Golunsky. In a nearly unanimous vote, Fyodor Kozhevnikov, also of USSR, was elected for the remainder of Golunsky's term.[1] [2]

On 30 November 1953, the Indian judge B.N. Rau died. The election to fill this occasional vacancy was scheduled to coincide with the regular 1954 election of five members.

The composition of the Court prior to the 1954 elections was thus as follows:

Judge	Term starts / renewed	Term ends
Vacancy - Benegal Narsing Rau (India)	1952	1961; died 1953
Alejandro Álvarez (Chile)	1946	1955
Jules Basdevant (France)	1946	1955
Jose Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador)	1946	1955
Arnold McNair (United Kingdom)	1946	1955
Levi Carneiro (Brazil)	1952 [3]	1955
Abdel Hamid Badawi Pasha (Egypt)	1946, 1949	1958
Hsu Mo (Republic of China)[4]	1946, 1949	1958
John Read (Canada)	1946, 1949	1958
Bohdan Winiarski (Poland)	1946, 1949	1958
Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia)	1946, 1949	1958
Enrique Armand-Ugón (Uruguay)	1952	1961
Green Hackworth (United States)	1946, 1952	1961
Helge Klæstad (Norway)	1946, 1952	1961
Fyodor Ivanovich Kozhevnikov (USSR)	1953 [3]	1961

Accordingly, the 1954 election saw the seat of the deceased Judge Rau to be filled as an occasional vacancy for the remainder of his term, and, technically in a separate election, the seats of Judges Álvarez, Basdevant, Guerrero, McNair and Carneiro were to be contested.

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 1954 elections, and would never be used up to now.

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

Judge	Term starts / renewed	Term ends
Abdel Hamid Badawi Pasha (Egypt)	1946, 1949	1958
Hsu Mo (Republic of China)[4]	1946, 1949	1958
John Read (Canada)	1946, 1949	1958
Bohdan Winiarski (Poland)	1946, 1949	1958
Milovan Zoričić (Yugoslavia)	1946, 1949	1958
Enrique Armand-Ugón (Uruguay)	1952	1961
Green Hackworth (United States)	1946, 1952	1961
Helge Klæstad (Norway)	1946, 1952	1961
Fyodor Ivanovich Kozhevnikov (USSR)	1953[3]	1961
Muhammad Zafarullah Khan (Pakistan)	1954 [3]	1961
Jules Basdevant (France)	1946, 1955	1964
Jose Gustavo Guerrero (El Salvador)	1946, 1955	1964
Lucio Moreno Quintana (Argentina)	1955	1964
Hersch Lauterpacht (United Kingdom)	1955	1964
Roberto Córdova (Mexico)	1955	1964

The seats of Judges Badawi Pasha, Hsu, Read, Winiarski and Zoričić were to be contested at the 1957 election. However, following the death of Judge Hsu in June 1956, an election to fill the occasional vacancy was held in December 1956.