International Court of Justice without British judge for first time

The candidacy of Sir Christopher Greenwood, who sought re-election for a second nine-year term, was withdrawn after 11 rounds of voting to fill the last vacancy on the 15-judge bench resulted in a stalemate.

India’s candidate, Dalveer Bhandari, will take the last seat instead.

In a letter, Matthew Rycroft, the UK’s permanent representative at the UN, said: “The UK has concluded that it is wrong to continue to take up the valuable time of the Security Council and the UN General Assembly with further rounds of elections.

“The UK congratulates the successful candidates, including Judge Bhandari of India. We are naturally disappointed, but it was a competitive field with six strong candidates.

“If the UK could not win in this runoff, then we are pleased that it is a close friend like India that has done so instead. We will continue to cooperate closely with India, here in the United Nations and globally.”

Dr Damian Gonzalez Salzburg of the Centre for International and European Law at Sheffield University told The Guardian: “It will be the first time in UN history where less than five judges from the most powerful regional group will sit at the ICJ.

“This may indicate the will of non-Western States to challenge Western privileges enshrined in customary rules for ICJ elections.”