Editing International Court of Justice (section)

===''Ad hoc'' judges===
Article 31 of the statute sets out a procedure whereby ''[[ad hoc]]'' judges sit on contentious cases before the court. The system allows any party to a contentious case (if it otherwise does not have one of that party's nationals sitting on the court) to select one additional person to sit as a judge on that case only. It is thus possible that as many as seventeen judges may sit on one case.

The system may seem strange when compared with domestic court processes, but its purpose is to encourage states to submit cases. For example, if a state knows that it will have a judicial officer who can participate in deliberation and offer other judges local knowledge and an understanding of the state's perspective, it may be more willing to submit to the jurisdiction of the court. Although this system does not sit well with the judicial nature of the body, it is usually of little practical consequence. ''Ad hoc'' judges usually (but not always) vote in favour of the state that appointed them and thus cancel each other out.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Posner, E. A. |author2=De Figueiredo, M. F. P. |title=Is the International Court of Justice Biased? |journal=Journal of Legal Studies |volume=34 |date=June 2005 |publisher=University of Chicago |url=http://www.ericposner.com/Is%20the%20International%20Court%20of%20Justice%20Biased.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223171938/http://www.ericposner.com/Is%20the%20International%20Court%20of%20Justice%20Biased.pdf |archive-date=23 December 2010 |url-status=live }}</ref>