The court, officially known as the International Court of Justice, or ICJ, was created in 1946 and has a dual role - settling disputes submitted by governments and giving advisory opinions on questions referred by UN bodies.
Judges of the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, are elected by concurrent balloting in the 15-nation Security Council and the 191-member General Assembly. Candidates must secure an absolute majority in each.
The court has 15 judges and five were up for election for a nine-year term. The only jurist seeking re-election was American Thomas Buergenthal, a professor of international law and a former judge of the Inter-American human rights court.
THE OTHER FOUR ELECTED WERE:
-- Mohamed Bennouna, Morocco's UN ambassador, a former judges of the UN war crimes court on the ex-Yugoslavia, a professor of international law and former law faculty dean;
-- Kenneth Keith, a New Zealand Supreme Court judge and author on international law issues;
-- Bernardo Sepulveda Amor of Mexico, an ad hoc judge on the ICJ, a frequent international arbitrator and a former ambassador to the United States;
-- Leonid Skotnikov, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and a former director of the legal department of Russia's Foreign Ministry.
Not elected were Julio Gonzalez Campos, a former judge of Spain's Constitutional Court and Abdelfattah Amor, a Tunisian law professor. Seidou Amadou Mazou of Niger's Supreme Court withdrew last week.
The ICJ is separate from the new International Criminal Court, also based in the Hague, which tries individuals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.