1948 International Court of Justice judges election

Article 2 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice provides that judges shall be elected "from among persons of high moral character, who possess the qualifications required in their respective countries for appointment to the highest judicial offices, or are jurisconsults of recognized competence in international law".

All States parties to the Statute of the ICJ had the right to propose candidates. Nominations of candidates for election to the ICJ are made by a group consisting of the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), designated by that State. For this purpose, members of the PCA act in "national groups" (i.e. all the PCA members from any individual state). (In the case of UN member states not represented in the PCA, the state in question may select up to four individuals to be its "national group" for the purpose of nominating candidates to the ICJ). Every such "national group" may nominate up to four candidates, not more than two of whom shall be of their own nationality. Before making these nominations, each "national group" is recommended to consult its highest court of justice, its legal faculties and schools of law, and its national academies and national sections of international academies devoted to the study of law.

Candidates that did not receive a single vote in either the General Assembly or the Security Council are not listed.

The General Assembly and the Security Council, independently from each other, each held several rounds of voting until 5 candidates received an absolute majority of votes. After 5 candidates did so both in the Assembly and the Council, the lists were compared, and the 4 candidates whose names appeared on both lists, Messrs Hsu, Badawi Pasha, Read and Winiarski, were declared elected. The fifth vacancy was to be filled after further rounds of voting.

Mr Zoričić having received an absolute majority of votes both in the Assembly and in the Council, was elected to fill the fifth vacancy.