The International Criminal Court: The Organs

In one line

Article 34 makes the Court's organs the Presidency, an Appeals Division, a Trial Division and a Pre-Trial Division, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Registry, with eighteen full-time judges elected for a single non-renewable nine-year term and a Prosecutor elected separately by the Assembly of States Parties.

Article 34: the four organs

(a) The Presidency. (b) An Appeals Division, a Trial Division and a Pre-Trial Division. (c) The Office of the Prosecutor. (d) The Registry.

The Office of the Prosecutor is an organ of the Court, not a department of it, and that separation is the point of the design.

The judges

Article 35: all judges are elected as full-time members and available to serve on that basis; the Presidency serves full-time from election; and the Presidency may decide, on the basis of workload, to what extent the remaining judges serve full-time.

Article 36(1): eighteen judges, with a procedure to increase the number by a two-thirds vote of the Assembly, and to reduce it again but never below eighteen.

Article 36(5): two lists. List A contains candidates with established competence in criminal law and procedure and the necessary relevant experience as judge, prosecutor or advocate. List B contains candidates with established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, with extensive professional legal experience. At the first election at least nine judges from list A and at least five from list B, and subsequent elections maintain the equivalent proportion.

That is the Statute's answer to a real problem: a court trying mass atrocity needs both criminal trial lawyers and international lawyers, and neither alone is sufficient.

Article 36(4): nominations by any State Party, using either the national procedure for the highest judicial offices or the procedure for nominating candidates to the International Court of Justice, each State putting forward one candidate who must be a national of a State Party though not necessarily its own.

Article 36(6): elected by secret ballot at a meeting of the Assembly of States Parties, the successful candidates being those with the highest number of votes and a two-thirds majority of States Parties present and voting.

Article 36(7): no two judges may be nationals of the same State.

Article 36(8): in selecting judges, States Parties shall take into account the need for representation of the principal legal systems of the world, equitable geographical representation, and a fair representation of female and male judges, and the need for judges with legal expertise on specific issues, including but not limited to violence against women or children.