5 International Court of Justice

The UN's principal judicial organ (Charter Article 92 — the Statute's integral part); the PCIJ's successor (the continuity of the family — the Permanent Court's 1922–1946 jurisprudence carried into the ICJ's Statute). 1. Composition: 15 judges — elected for 9-year terms (renewable) by the General Assembly and Security Council voting separately (the double-election's design; the General Assembly's concurrent majority requirement); the equitable-geographical-distribution practice (the informal distribution of seats); the ad hoc judge — the party's own appointee when no national sits (Article 31 — the fairness device); the qualifications (the electorates' regard for the candidates' "highest moral character" and qualifications for the highest judicial offices — Article 2's text-family); the chambers (the summary and special chambers — Articles 26–29); 2. Jurisdiction (Article 36): (i) contentious jurisdiction — states only (the party-requirement; the international organizations and individuals excluded — the advisory track's compensating role); the consent's three sources: special agreement (compromis), compromissory clauses (treaties' ICJ clauses — the hundreds in force), and the optional clause — the Declaration under Article 36(2) accepting the Court's compulsory jurisdiction ipso facto on condition of reciprocity (Nepal's position: no optional-clause declaration — the state's consent- reserving practice, like most states; the declarations' reservations games — the Connally and Vandenberg reservations, the auto-interpretation of the reservation's reach); the forum prorogatum's residual; (ii) advisory jurisdiction (Article 65…