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.
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.
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
Qualifications
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
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
Procedure
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
Meeting 1
Candidates that did not receive a single vote in either the General Assembly or the Security Council are not listed.
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.
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
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:
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