NDA (I) 2018 General Ability Test · Question 148 of 150

Correct — C, Britain. Sir Christopher Greenwood was the British candidate. He had first been elected to the International Court of Justice in November 2008 and sat on the Court from 2009, and in the election of November 2017 he sought a second nine-year term. Justice Dalveer Bhandari of India stood against him. The two chambers of the United Nations vote separately, and the contest deadlocked — Bhandari held a large majority in the General Assembly while Greenwood held the Security Council. After eleven rounds the United Kingdom withdrew Greenwood's candidacy, and Bhandari was re-elected. The result left Britain, a permanent member of the Security Council, without a judge on the Court for the first time in its seventy-one-year history.

• (a)Canada — Canada was not a party to this contest. The name and the reputation of the candidate belong to Britain, where Greenwood had been Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics before his election.
• (b)Russia — Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and has generally had a judge on the Court, but Greenwood was not its candidate. The item is easier if a candidate remembers that the story's headline was about Britain losing its seat.
• (d)USA — The United States was not the nominating country here either. Guessing among the permanent members is the trap this option is built for; three of the four options are Security Council permanent members and only one of them is right.

The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and sits at the Peace Palace in The Hague. It has fifteen judges elected for nine-year terms, and five seats fall vacant every three years. A candidate must win an absolute majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council, voting separately and simultaneously, which is why a deadlock between the two chambers is possible and why the 2017 election ran to eleven rounds. The Court decides contentious cases between states and gives advisory opinions to United Nations organs; it does not try individuals, which is the work of the separate International Criminal Court.

Anchor to the exam. The election took place on 20 November 2017, five months before this paper was set, and it was read in India as a significant diplomatic success — an outcome in which the weight of the General Assembly overrode the preference of the Security Council. Justice Bhandari, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India who had joined the Court in 2012, was re-elected for a nine-year term beginning in February 2018. Two present-day cautions follow. Because five of the fifteen seats come up every three years, the Court's composition is never a fixed fact and a candidate should check it against the year before quoting it. And Bhandari's own term, running from February 2018, was itself due to expire before the end of this decade, so India's seat comes round again in the ordinary cycle.

• Sir Christopher Greenwood was the United Kingdom's candidate; he had sat on the Court from 2009.
• The election of 20 November 2017 deadlocked, with Bhandari leading in the General Assembly and Greenwood in the Security Council.
• Britain withdrew Greenwood after eleven rounds, and Dalveer Bhandari was re-elected.
• It was the first time in the Court's seventy-one-year history that Britain had no judge on it.
• The Court has fifteen judges elected for nine-year terms and sits at the Peace Palace in The Hague.

• Guessing among the permanent members of the Security Council without recalling the specific country.
• Confusing the International Court of Justice with the International Criminal Court, which tries individuals.
• Quoting the Court's composition as fixed; a third of the bench changes every three years.

NDA takes one international-institution item per paper from the previous year's news, usually an election, an appointment or a summit.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Court of Justice consists of how many judges, and for what term?

  • (a)11 judges for six years
  • (b)15 judges for nine years
  • (c)18 judges for nine years
  • (d)21 judges for five years

  Answer(b) 15 judges for nine years, with five seats falling vacant every three years.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The International Court of Justice has its seat at

  • (a)Geneva
  • (b)New York
  • (c)The Hague
  • (d)Vienna

  Answer(c) The Hague — at the Peace Palace.