Reflections on International Judges and Their Decision-making: A Review Essay on Daniel Terris et al. (eds), The International Judge

Abstract

In reviewing this valuable book, some reflections were given concerning nominations of candidates for judicial posts, as well as on moral integrity of particular judges in the proceedings before the International Court of Justice on South West Africa (Namibia) between 1950 and 1971. Paradoxically, the controversial Judgment of 1966 had some salutary effects on further development of rules of general international law. 1. At the time when the author of this essay was a student of law in Sarajevo, between 1953 and 1957, only one fully established and universally recognized international forum of jurisdiction existed. This was the International Court of Justice (ICJ), one of the six principal organs of the UN and its principal judicial organ. At that same time, the Court of Justice of the European Coal and Steel Community was established in Luxemburg, and the Commission on behalf of the European Convention on Human Rights also commenced its activities in Strasbourg. 2. Nobody was certain of the future of the entire world during this difficult period. The war in Korea had just ended, happily without bombing China and the “enemy”-armed forces in North Korea with nuclear weapons. After this, there occurred