International Court of Justice to Appoint 6 New Clerks

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has announced that it is seeking to appoint 6 new Law Clerks for its judges. The additional clerks will make it possible for each judge to have a full time law clerk. The decision by the General Assembly to allocate extra resources to the Court is welcome as the list of cases before the Court continues to grow (see our earlier posts on recent cases here , here, here and here). Until now, ICJ Judges have had to share clerks and have also had the benefit of year long interns which have been paid for by law schools around the world under the Court’s univerity traineeship programme. My own law school at Oxford recently joined this latter programme and now provides one intern to the Court.

The announcement on the ICJ’s website regarding the new positions says that:

Under the supervision of the judge to whom he or she will be specifically assigned, the Law Clerk will provide such judge with legal research and related assistance with regard to cases pending before the Court. The Law Clerk may also be required to provide legal assistance and support to a judge ad hoc participating in a particular case. In coordination with his or her judge, the Law Clerk may also from time to time be called upon to perform some specific legal tasks for the Registry.

The new positions are at P2 level and will be made for a fixed term of 2 years with the possibility of renewal.