List of Judges of the International Court of Justice

The Peace Palace in The Hague, seat of the International Court of Justice
The list of judges of the International Court of Justice contains all 108 persons who were or are serving as regularly elected judges of the International Court of Justice as of June 2018, the date of the by-election of Yuji Iwasawa. It does not include judges who, in accordance with the Statutes of the Court, have been called on an ad hoc basis in individual cases at the request of a participating country.
The table is sortable within the columns, so that different representations are possible, for example an arrangement according to the beginning of the term of office or a presidency or a grouping according to the countries of origin. The names of the 15 judges currently in office are highlighted in bold type, and the end of their term of office is shown in brackets.
Selection of judges

Judges Shi Jiuyong, Aun Schaukat al-Chasauneh, Rosalyn Higgins and Raymond Ranjeva in a session marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the International Court of Justice
The International Court of Justice, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, consists of 15 judges elected for a period of nine years. Of the judges who served after the Court’s establishment in 1946, five were elected for initial terms of three, six, and nine years, respectively, to allow for staggered by-election and re-election thereafter. The election is carried out by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council on the basis of proposals by the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Elections are held every three years for one third of the judges, and re-election is possible for up to two further terms
Personal requirements of the candidates are the existence of the qualification for the highest judicial office in their home country or a proven competence in the field of international law. No two judges serving on the Court at the same time may be from the same country. The selection of judges is intended to provide adequate representation of the various cultural and legal communities in the world. The removal of a judge is only possible by unanimous decision of the other judges, but has never occurred in the Court’s practice to date.
Various principles of selection are not prescribed by the Statute of the Court of Justice, but are established by customary usage or tradition. For example, a judge who dies before the end of his or her term is usually succeeded by a candidate of the same nationality until the regular end of the term of the deceased incumbent. Also longstanding practice is to have a balanced representation of the different regions of the world and to take into account other geopolitical realities when appointing judges to the court. This was particularly important during the Cold War, i.e. the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the Eastern Bloc around 1989/1990.
Of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the United States, France, Russia and the Soviet Union have always been represented by one judge since the establishment of the Court, as has the People’s Republic of China since 1985. This was also true of the United Kingdom from 1946 to 2018. In the November 2017 elections, British incumbent Christopher Greenwood’s bid for re-election failed, as he was supported by a majority of UN Security Council members but was defeated in the UN General Assembly by Indian candidate Dalveer Bhandari. After several unsuccessful rounds of voting, the British UN mission withdrew its candidacy in favour of Dalveer Bhandari.
List of judges
Country of origin | Name | Tenure | President | Vice President |
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José Gustavo Guerrero (1876-1958) |
1946–1958 | 1946–1949 | 1949–1955 |
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Jules Basdevant (1877-1968) |
1946–1964 | 1949–1952 | 1946–1949 |
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Alejandro Álvarez (1868-1960) |
1946–1955 | ||
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Isidro Fabela (1882-1964) |
1946–1952 | ||
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Green H. Hackworth (1883-1973) |
1946–1961 | 1955–1958 | |
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Bohdan Winiarski (1884-1969) |
1946–1967 | 1961–1964 | |
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Milovan Zoričić (1884-1971) |
1946–1958 | ||
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Charles De Visscher (1884-1973) |
1946–1952 | ||
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Arnold McNair (1885-1975) |
1946–1955 | 1952–1955 | |
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Helge Klæstad (1885-1965) |
1946–1961 | 1958–1961 | |
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Abdul Hamid Badawi (1887-1965) |
1946–1965 | 1955–1958 | |
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Sergei Krylov (1888-1958) |
1946–1952 | ||
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John Read (1888-1973) |
1946–1958 | ||
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Hsu Mo (1893-1956) |
1946–1956 | ||
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Philadelpho Azevedo (1894-1951) |
1946–1951 | ||
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Levi Carneiro (1882-1971) |
1951–1955 | ||
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Benegal Narsing Rau (1887-1953) |
1952–1953 | ||
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Enrique Armand-Ugón (1893-1984) |
1952–1961 | ||
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Sergei Golunski (1895-1962) |
1952–1953 | ||
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Fyodor Koshevnikov (1903-1998) |
1953–1961 | ||
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Muhammad Zafrullah Khan (1893-1985) |
1954-1961; 1964-1973 |
1970–1973 | 1958–1961 |
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Hersch Lauterpacht (1897-1960) |
1955–1960 | ||
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Lucio Moreno Quintana (1898-1979) |
1955–1964 | ||
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Roberto Córdova (1899-1967) |
1955–1964 | ||
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Wellington Koo (1887-1985) |
1957–1967 | 1964–1967 | |
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Jean Spiropoulos (1896-1972) |
1958–1967 | ||
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Percy Spender (1897-1985) |
1958–1967 | 1964–1967 | |
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Ricardo J. Alfaro (1882-1971) |
1959–1964 | 1961–1964 | |
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Gerald Fitzmaurice (1901-1982) |
1960–1973 | ||
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Vladimir Korezki (1890-1984) |
1961–1970 | 1967–1970 | |
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Tanaka Kōtarō (1890-1974) |
1961–1970 | ||
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José Luis Bustamante y Rivero (1894-1989) |
1961–1970 | 1967–1970 | |
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Philip Jessup (1897-1986) |
1961–1970 | ||
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Gaetano Morelli (1900-1989) |
1961–1970 | ||
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Luis Padilla Nervo (1894-1985) |
1964–1973 | ||
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Isaac Forster (1903-1984) |
1964–1982 | ||
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André Gros (1908-2003) |
1964–1982 | ||
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Fouad Ammoun (1899-1977) |
1965–1976 | 1970–1976 | |
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Cesar Bengzon (1896-1992) |
1967–1976 | ||
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Sture Petrén (1908-1976) |
1967–1976 | ||
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Manfred Lachs (1914-1993) |
1967–1993 | 1973–1976 | |
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Charles Onyeama (1917-1999) |
1967–1976 | ||
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Hardy Cross Dillard (1902-1982) |
1970–1979 | ||
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Louis Ignacio-Pinto (1903-1984) |
1970–1979 | ||
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Federico de Castro (1903-1983) |
1970–1979 | ||
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Platon Dmitrievich Morozov (1906-1986) |
1970–1985 | ||
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Eduardo Jiménez de Aréchaga (1918-1994) |
1970–1979 | 1976–1979 | |
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Humphrey Waldock (1904-1981) |
1973–1981 | 1979–1981 | |
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Nagendra Singh (1914-1988) |
1973–1988 | 1985–1988 | 1976–1979 |
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José María Ruda (1924-1994) |
1973–1991 | 1988–1991 | |
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Hermann Mosler (1912-2001) |
1976–1985 | ||
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Taslim Olawale Elias (1914-1991) |
1976–1991 | 1982–1985 | 1979–1982 |
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Salah El Dine Tarazi (1917-1980) |
1976–1980 | ||
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Shigeru Oda (* 1924) |
1976–2003 | 1991–1994 | |
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Roberto Ago (1907-1995) |
1979–1995 | ||
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Abdullah Ali El-Erian (1920-1981) |
1979–1981 | ||
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José Sette Câmara (1920-2002) |
1979–1988 | 1982–1985 | |
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Richard R. Baxter (1921-1980) |
1979–1980 | ||
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Abdallah Fikri El-Khani (* 1925) |
1981–1985 | ||
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Stephen M. Schwebel (* 1929) |
1981–2000 | 1997–2000 | 1994–1997 |
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Robert Yewdall Jennings (1913-2004) |
1982–1995 | 1991–1994 | |
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Guy Ladreit de Lacharrière (1919-1987) |
1982–1987 | 1985–1987 | |
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Kéba Mbaye (1924-2007) |
1982–1991 | 1987–1991 | |
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Mohammed Bedjaoui (* 1929) |
1982–2001 | 1994–1997 | |
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Ni Zhengyu (1906-2003) |
1985–1994 | ||
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Jens Evensen (1917-2004) |
1985–1994 | ||
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Nikolai Tarasov (1923-1994) |
1985–1994 | ||
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Gilbert Guillaume (* 1930) |
1987–2005 | 2000–2003 | |
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Mohamed Shahabuddeen (1931-2018) |
1988–1997 | ||
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Raghunandan Swarup Pathak (1924-2007) |
1989–1991 | ||
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Andrés Aguilar Mawdsley (1924-1995) |
1991–1995 | ||
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Christopher Weeramantry (1926-2017) |
1991–2000 | 1997–2000 | |
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Raymond Ranjeva (* 1942) |
1991–2009 | 2003–2006 | |
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Bola Ajibola (* 1934) |
1991–1994 | ||
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Géza Herczegh (1928-2010) |
1993–2003 | ||
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Shi Jiuyong (* 1926) |
1994–2010 | 2003–2006 | 2000–2003 |
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Carl-August Fleischhauer (1930-2005) |
1994–2003 | ||
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Abdul Gadrie Koroma (* 1943) |
1994–2012 | ||
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Vladlen Vereschetin (* 1932) |
1994–2006 | ||
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Luigi Ferrari Bravo (1933-2016) |
1995–1997 | ||
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Rosalyn Higgins (* 1937) |
1995–2009 | 2006–2009 | |
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Gonzalo Parra-Aranguren (1928-2016) |
1996–2009 | ||
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Pieter Kooijmans (1933-2013) |
1997–2006 | ||
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Francisco Rezek (* 1944) |
1997–2006 | ||
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Aun Schaukat al-Chasauneh (* 1950) |
2000–2011 | 2006–2009 | |
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Thomas Buergenthal (* 1934) |
2000–2010 | ||
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Nabil Elaraby (* 1935) |
2001–2006 | ||
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Hisashi Owada (* 1932) |
2003–2018 | 2009–2012 | |
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Bruno Simma (* 1941) |
2003–2012 | ||
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Peter Tomka (* 1956) |
2003–(2030) | 2012–2015 | 2009–2012 |
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Ronny Abraham (* 1951) |
2005–(2027) | 2015–2018 | |
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Kenneth Keith (* 1937) |
2006–2015 | ||
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Bernardo Sepúlveda Amor (* 1941) |
2006–2015 | 2012–2015 | |
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Mohamed Bennouna (* 1943) |
2006–(2024) | ||
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Leonid Skotnikov (* 1951) |
2006–2015 | ||
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Christopher Greenwood (* 1955) |
2009–2018 | ||
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Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (* 1948) |
2009–(2027) | 2018–2021 | 2015–2018 |
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Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade (* 1947) |
2009–(2027) | ||
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Xue Hanqin (* 1955) |
2010–(2030) | 2018–(2021) | |
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Joan E. Donoghue (* 1956) |
2010–(2024) | 2021–(2024) | |
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Giorgio Gaja (* 1939) |
2012–2021 | ||
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Julia Sebutinde (* 1954) |
2012–(2030) | ||
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Dalveer Bhandari (* 1947) |
2012–(2027) | ||
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James Crawford (* 1948) |
2015–(2024) | ||
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Kirill Goraziyevich Vorgyan (* 1953) |
2015–(2024) | 2021–(2024) | |
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Patrick Lipton Robinson (* 1944) |
2015–(2024) | ||
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Nawaf Salam (* 1953) |
2018–(2027) | ||
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Yuji Iwasawa (* 1954) |
2018–(2030) | ||
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Georg Nolte (* 1959) |
2021–(2030) |
Literature
- Arthur Eyffinger, Arthur Witteveen, Mohammed Bedjaoui: La Cour internationale de Justice 1946-1996. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague and London 1999, ISBN 9-04-110468-2 (Biographies of the judges from 1946 to 1996, with pictures)
Web links
Commons: Judges of the International Court of Justice– Collection of images, videos and audio files
- International Court of Justice – Current Members List of current judges on the website of the ICJ (English)
- International Court of Justice – All Members List of all judges on the website of the ICJ (English)
- Judges (International Court of Justice The Hague)
- List (judges)