International Court of Justice And Regional Bias

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) presides over the contentious issues, such as boundary disputes and military conflict, for all United Nation’s (UN) members. Its rulings, legally binding, guide international affairs between states by holding them accountable to international law. Previous studies have found that the judges on the ICJ display judicial bias. However, scholars have yet to evaluate whether judges are influenced by a regional association with a party in the cases. To evaluate the role of region in ICJ rulings, I developed a dataset containing: 1) nationality of judges in contentious cases, 2) states party to a case, 3) states’ regions, and 4) case subject. This data is then used to evaluate the relationship between ICJ judges, state region, and the outcome of case rulings in order to determine whether regional bias exist today within the UN.