On 3 November 2016, the United Nations General Assembly elected the 34 members of the International Law Commission (ILC) who will serve the next five-year term beginning on 1 January 2017.
The ILC was established by the General Assembly in 1947 in order to discharge the Assembly’s obligation under Article 13(1)(a) of the UN Charter, which requires it to “initiate studies and make recommendations for the purpose of … encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification”. This mandate is reflected in Article 1 of the Statute of the ILC.
Article 2 of the Statute requires members to be persons of recognised competence in international law and also provides that no two members shall be nationals of the same State. The Statute also requires that, in the ILC as a whole, “representation of the main forms of civilization and of the principal legal systems of the world should be assured” (Article 8). According to General Assembly Resolution 36/39, the election of the 34 ILC members is based on a strict geographical allocation.
For the ILC’s announcement on the outcome of the elections, click here.