Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T05:31:08.985Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Election Procedure in the United Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

Aleksander W. Rudzinski
Aleksander W. Rudzinski*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It appears at first sight almost incredible that a secret ballot under the majority rule could result in more candidates mustering the required majority of votes than there are places to be filled. But this actually happened four times in the Security Council during the election of judges to the International Court of Justice.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , January 1959 , pp. 81 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 567th Meeting, Dec. 6, 1951, and three times during the 681st Meeting, Oct. 7, 1954.

2 (IX) 5th Committee, 444th Meeting, Oct. 22, 1954.

3 (VII) 378th Plenary Meeting, Oct. 14, 1952; (VIII) 433rd Plenary Meeting, Sept. 16, 1953; and (XII) 679th Plenary Meeting, Sept. 18, 1957.

4 Records of the 16th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1935, p. 38.

5 E.g., (IX) 5th Committee, 443rd Meeting, Oct. 22, 1954, a vote taken on the question: “Should an honorarium be paid for work performed between sessions of the Permanent Central Opium Board and Drug Supervisory Body?“

6 There may be even a vote, for example, on the selection of one of two or more cities as meeting places for the General Assembly in Europe. That is also a clear case of an election and the best way to vote on it is to apply election rules in a simplified form.

7 A good example is the appointment of a Credentials Committee at the opening of each regular session of the General Assembly (Rule 28 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly). It consists of nine members proposed by the President of the General Assembly (actually the Temporary President). The Temporary President asks for objections; if there are none the General Assembly “approves” the list proposed without a formal vote. Soviet-type “elections” are another well-known example.

8 “ An electrical voting system would offer the possibility of a recorded vote equivalent to a roll call, or an unrecorded vote equivalent to a show of hands. Elections which differ greatly in character would continue to be held by secret ballot.” (Correction of votes in the General Assembly and Committees, Report of Secretary General, A/2977 (X), Annexes, Agenda Item 51, par. 63.)

9 The problem discussed here was brought to the attention of Subcommittee 3 of the 6th Committee during the Second Session of the General Assembly on Oct. 30, 1947, by a member of the delegation of Panama as an “interesting mathematical possibility.“ The Subcommittee's report (A/C.6/182) contains on pages 41-42 a clear and precise explanation demonstrating this possibility in the first ballot in case an election is governed by two-thirds majority as well as for simple majority elections. The Subcommittee “decided to bring these possibilities to the attention of Committee 6 since no specific proposals were advanced on the question” (p. 42). The 6th Committee and the Plenary simply ignored the matter, apparently convinced that such “mathematical possibilities” are purely academic and quite unlikely to occur in practice. After all, tliis had happened only once in the League Assembly, in 1935, and even that occurrence was probably unknown to members of the 6th Committee.

10 Security Council, Official Records, 567th Meeting, Dec. 6, 1951, par. 23.

11 Ibid, par. 25.

12 Ibid, pars. 26, 52, 53, 59.

13 Ibid. par. 52.

14 Ibid. par. 59.

15 ibid. par. 26.

16 Ibid, par. 27.

17 Ibid. par. 43.

18 Ibid. par. 114.

19 Ibid. par. 28.

20 ibid. par. 67.

21 Ibid. par. 81.

22 ibid. par. 83.

23 ibid. par. 100.

24 ibid. par. 114.

25 ibid. pars. 115-117.

26 Ibid. par. 81.

27 Security Council, Official Becords, 681st Meeting, Oct. 7, 1954, par. 16.

28 ibid par. 16.

29 ibid. par. 17.

30 ibiid. par. 18.

31 ibid. par. 19.

32 ibid. par. 20.

33 ibid. par. 35.

34 ibid. par. 30.

35 ibid.par. 32.

36 Security Council, Official Records, 567th Meeting, Dec. 6, 1951, pars. 63, 70.

37 Ibid., 681st Meeting, Oct. 7, 1954, par. 27.

38 lbid. par. 26.

39 Ibid. par. 28.

40 Records of the 16th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1935, p. 38.

41 ibid. 40.

42 Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, rev. ed., O. 144. M. 92. 1937, p. 7.

43 General Assembly, 7th Sess., Official Records, 378th Plenary Meeting, Oct. ]-), 1952, par. 33.

44 No verbatim record and no sound record exists covering the announcement of the result of the ballot by the President.

45 General Assembly, 8th Sess., Official Becords, 443rd Plenary Meeting, Sept. 16, 1953.

46 Ibid. par. 3.

47 Ibid. par. 4.

48 ibid. par. 4.

49 ibid. par. 3.

50 Ibid. par. 3.

51 Decision of the 577th Plenary Meeting, Nov. 15, 1956, and Bes. 1104(XI), 623rd Plenary Meeting, Dec. 18, 1956.

52 The legality of this election, which took place without a previous decision to create a ninth vice presidency on an ad hoe basis for the 12th Session, as had been recommended by the General Committee, is open to most serious doubts (General Assembly, 12th Sess., Official Records, 702nd Plenary Meeting, Oct. 7, 1957, pars. 120-169, Doc. A/3687 and Add. 1, Third Report of the General Committee, A/3689 (XII), Annexes, Agenda Item 8, p. 11, (XII) 114th Meeting of the General Committee, Oct. 4, 1957). The thorny problem of a new distribution of seats in the General Committee was finally resolved by Res. 1192 (XII), Dec. 12, 1957, by increasing the number of Vice Presidents to thirteen and fixing in a special annex the number of places apportioned to each regional bloc, thus changing a gentlemen's agreement and usage into almost a legal obligation and statutory law.

53 A/C.5/L.280, (IX), Annexes, Agenda Item 39. Technically the 5th Committee recommends candidates elected by secret ballot for appointment by the General Assembly.

54 General Assembly, 9th Bess., Official Records, 5th Committee, 444th Meeting, Oct. 22, 1954, pars. 6, 11.

55 Ibid. par. 7. The summary record, (IX) 5th Committee, 444th Meeting, Oct. 22, 1954, does not contain the second proposal. Only the sound recording does.

56 Ibid. par. 11.

57 Emphasis added. It is strange that the records of the 6th Committee (58th Meeting, Nov. 20, 1947) and of the discussion in plenary (123rd Plenary Meeting, Nov. 21, 1947), and even the report of Subcommittee 2 of the 6th Committee, dated Nov. 18, 1947 (A/C.6/193, Annex l,g, General Assembly, 2nd Sess., Official Records, 6th Committee, pp. 188-204), containing the draft Statute of the International Law Commission are completely silent on this ingenious voting formula which couples simple majority with plurality. If there was any discussion of the formula at all, it must have been in the privacy of Subcommittee 2. Even that is doubtful, because its report summarizing the debate stresses only the choice between election by simple majority of those present and voting, by two-thirds majority of those present and voting, and by absolute majority of the total membership of the United Nations (par. 7), erroneously alleging that the last choice governs elections to the International Court of Justice (see Part II of this paper). Before proceeding to the ballot in the last elections of five judges of the International Court of Justice on Oct. 1, 1957 (12th Sess., 695th Plenary Meeting), the President announced: “Candidates up to the number of five who obtain 43 or more votes in the Assembly will be considered elected in the Assembly” (par. 9, emphasis added), thus betraying awareness of our problem.

58 Drawing lots cannot be applied when electing judges to the International Court of Justice; instead, elimination of the youngest candidate (or candidates) for judge seems to be in accordance with the spirit of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (Arts. 10 (3) and 12 (4)) (see p. 86 above). The same privilege for the elder candidates has been adopted in the Statute of the International Law Commission (Art. 9, par. 2) in case “of more than one national of the same State obtaining a sufficient number of votes for election.“

59 The language to be introduced in Rule 96 is italicized.

60 Hudson, Manley O., The Permanent Court of International Justice 82 (New York, 1943);Google Scholar Jessup, Philip C., “The International Court of Justice of the United Nations,“ 21 Foreign Policy Reports 155 (No. 11, 1945);Google Scholar idem, A Modern Law of Nations 29 (1948).

61 Philip C. Jessup, ‘ ‘ The International Court of Justice of the United Nations,'' loo. cit. 161-162; Hudson, Manley O., “The 24th Tear of the World Court,” 40 A.J.I.L. 1-52 (1946);Google Scholar Goodrich-Hambro, Charter of the United Nations 30-31 (2d ed., 1949).

62 Doc. PC/GA/1/Bev. 1, Nov. 22, 1945.

63 General Assembly, 1st Sess., Pt. I, Plenary Meetings, Jan. 10-Peb. 14, 1946, pp. 340, 344-345.

64 Records of 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1921, pp. 235-249; Records of 11th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1930, pp. 134-136, 137-138.

65 Records of 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1921, pp. 249, 252-255; Beoords of 11th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1930, pp. 136, 139, 140; and Manley O. Hudson, The Permanent Court of International Justice 1920-1942, pp. 247- 248, 249-250, 252-253, 253-256 (New York, 1943).

66 Records of 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1921, pp. 252-255, 256-257.

67 The report of the United Nations Committee of Jurists to the San Francisco Conference does not contain this addition. UNCIO Doc. XIV, pp. 821 ft.

68 Manley O. Hudson, “The 24th Year of the World Court,” loc. cit. 19.

69 Hans Kelsen, The Law of the United Nations 188-189 (New York, 1950).

70 General Assembly, 9th Sess., Official Records, 493rd Plenary Meeting, Oct. 7, 1954, par. 7.

71 TJ.N. Doc. A/3208, General Assembly, 11th Sess., Official Records, Annexes, Agenda Item 17, Pt. II, par. 7. Emphasis added.

72 It is interesting to note that the Secretary General's memorandum of Sept. 24, 1957, on the procedure of the election, does not repeat the dogmatic definition of absolute majority quoted above, but contains a more cautious factual statement: “The consistent practice of the United Nations has been to interpret the words ‘absolute majority' as meaning a majority of all the qualified electors whether or not they vote.“ (A/2678/S/3891, Sept. 24, 1957, Election of five members of the International Court of Justice, Memorandum by the Secretary General, par. 9.) (Emphasis added.)

73 P.C.I.J., Series D, No. 1, 1926, p. 10.

74 Hudson, Manley O., The Permanent Court of International Justice 158 (New York, 1943).Google Scholar

75 Records of the 1st Assembly, Committee I, p. 342, quoted by Hudson, op. tit. 158.

76 Records of the 1st Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1920, p. 240.

77 Records of the 16th Ordinary Session of the Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1935, p. 41 (emphasis added).

78 Records of the 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, pp. 236, 246, 248, 11th Plenary Meeting, Sept. 14, 1921.

79 E.g., Records of the 11th Assembly, Plenary Meetings, pp. 134-136.

80 Ibid., pp. 134, 135, 136, 15th Plenary Meeting, Sept. 25, 1930.

81 See, e.g., Dictionnaire de l'Académie Franchise (8ièmeéd.), Vol. II, H-Z (Librairie Hachette, 1935), p. 147; under Majorité, Nouveau petit Larousse illustré (Paris, 1952), p. 604; Der Sprach-Brockhaus (Leipzig, 1935), p. 403. 82It is perhaps not superfluous to note that the term “majority,” strictly speaking, is used in two different meanings: (1) denoting superiority in number of one set over another (plurality), i.e., either (a) only the excess in number, as in the sentence: “He was elected by a narrow majority of 31 votes,” or (b) the set itself which has numerical superiority, as in the saying: “Mr. X voted with the majority to elect him.” The point is that two or more sets are being compared numerically. (2) The greater part of one set, as in the sentence: “A majority of deputies voted for the resolution.” The Continental term “relative majority” uses sense (1), while the terms “absolute,” “simple,” or “qualified majority” are meant in sense (2). See also Philip C. Jessup, The United States and the World Court 18 (658) (Boston, 1929).

83 Funk and Wagnalls, New ‘ ‘ Standard'’ Dictionary of the English Language 3 495 (1947). Emphasis added.

84 The Oxford English Dictionary, Vol. VI, L-M, p. 59 (Oxford, 1933). Emphasis added.

85 The Concise Oxford Dictionary 721 (4th ed., 1952). Emphasis added.

86 See Mavrommatis Case, P.C.I. J., Series A, No. 2, pp. 19-20.

87 Jurist 61, G49 TJNCIO Doc. XIV, p. 591. Emphasis added.

88 Emphasis added.

89 Records of the 1st Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1920, p. 241.

90 Records of 3rd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, Vol. I, p. 349. Same text in Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, rev. ed., Nov. 1, 1938, C. 144. M.82. 1937, pp. 15-16

91 Emphasis added.

92 Kelsen rightly draws attention to this point. Hans Kelsen, The Law of the United Nations 188-189 (1950).

93 Frontier between Turkey and Iraq, P.C.I.J., Series B, No. 12.

94 [1955] I.C.J. Rep. 67.

95 ibid. 109.

96 Tbid. 75; separate opinion of Judge Basdevant, pp. 81-82; separate opinion of Judge LauteTpaeht, p. 108.

97 ibid. 108.

98 Hudson, Manley O., The Permanent Court of International Justice 1920-1942, p. 245(New York, 1943).Google Scholar

99 Art. 1 of the Rules of Court adopted May 6, 1946, I.C.J., Series D, No. 1 (1946), p. 54.

100 U.N. Doe. A/2977, (X) 1955, Annexes, Agenda Item 51, pp. 1-10.

101 Correction of Votes, Report of the Secretary General, A/2977, par. 80, footnote 53.

102 El Salvador (X), 6th Committee, 455th Meeting, Nov. 8, 1955, par. 21.

103 ibid., pars. 6, 7, 34, 36; and 457th Meeting, Nov. 10, 1955, par. 1.

104 (X), 6th Committee, 455th Meeting, Nov. 8, 1955, par. 12; 456th Meeting, Nov. 9, 1955, pars. 3, 23. See also F. A. Vallat, “Voting in the General Assembly of the United Nations,” 31 British Year Book of International Law 296-297 (1954).

105 (IX) , Plenary Meetings, 493rd Plenary Meeting, Oct. 7, 1954, par. 7.

106 Decision by General Assembly, 3rd Plenary Meeting, Jan. 11, 1946 (1/1), Plenary Meetings, pp. 81-82.

107 6th Sess., Plenary Meetings, 350th Plenary Meeting, Dee. 6, 1951, par. 27.

108 ibid. par. 28.

109 625th, 626th, 627th and 637th Plenary Meetings, Dec. 19, 1956, and Jan. 11, 1957.

110 695th and 696th Plenary Meetings, Oct. 1, 1957.

111 Records, 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, pp. 239-246. Emphasis added.

112 Rule 21 of the League of Nations Assembly provided for a second ballot confined ” t o the unsuccessful candidates who obtained the greatest number of votes at the first ballot, not more than double in number the places remaining to be filled.” (Records 1st Assembly, Plenary Meetings, 1920, p. 241.) But in elections of judges all candidates appearing on the Secretary General's list were eligible during all ballots in the League of’ Nations Assembly.

113 Records, 3rd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, Vol. I, p. 350.is Records, 3rd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, Vol. I, p. 350.

114 General Assembly, 3rd Sess., Pt. I, 154th and 155th Plenary Meetings, NOT. 3, 1948; 8th Sees., 453rd and 454th Plenary Meetings, Oct. 23, 1953.

115 This point was used in 1921 as an argument against restricted ballots. Records of 2nd Assembly, Plenary Meetings, p. 245.