India's candidate re-elected to ICJ after Britain withdraws
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NEW YORK: India's candidate was Monday re-elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after Britain withdrew its nomination from the contest.
For 11 rounds, Justice Dalveer Bhandari of India and Christopher Greenwood of Britain were locked in a stalemate, with Bhandari getting majority support in the United Nations General Assembly and Justice Greenwood in the UN Security Council, both of which vote separately in elections to the world court.
Bhandari joins Ronny Abraham of France, Chaloka Beyani (Zambia), Ant-nio Augusto Can-ado Trindade (Brazil), Nawaf Salam (Lebanon), and Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf (Somalia) as the five judges who will serve along with ten other judges at the ICJ. Their nine-year terms begin 6 February 2018.
The Court is composed of 15 judges, who are elected by an absolute majority in both the General Assembly and Security Council. Five seats come up for election every three years. There is no bar on consecutive terms.
Established in 1945, and based in The Hague in the Netherlands, the ICJ “informally known as the "World Court" settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by other authorized UN organs.
The election of the first members of the World Court took place on February 6, 1946, at the first session of the UN General Assembly and Security Council. The election of the first members of the World Court