The United Kingdom's views on elections to the International Court of Justice during the Cold War

This article considers the process of nominating and electing candidates to the International Court of Justice ('ICJ') during the Cold War by focusing on a specific national encounter: the views of the United Kingdom government during elections to the ICJ between 1946 and 1963. With this aim in mind, it examines internal (archival) correspondence between the UK national group and the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office and the Commonwealth Relations Office, as well as communications with other Commonwealth governments and the government of the United States. This internal correspondence reveals how the UK considered the suitability of candidates for nomination to the ICJ and how it sought to reconcile its choices with arts 2 and 9 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. The focus of the study is on the specific attributes and experiences that British officials considered essential for candidates to obtain the support of the UK government amidst a changing global legal order, when new candidates emerged from the former European colonies in Africa and Asia. It suggests that British officials were informed by a 'Cold War mindset' that distrusted candidates from countries that were considered too strongly associated with the Soviet Union. CONTENT