The General Assembly and the Security Council concurrently elected Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant for remainder of the nine-year term of office that had been held by Judge Antônio Cançado Trindade, who died in May, 2022.
Judges are required to be independent and impartial; they may not exercise any political or administrative function, and do not act as a representative of their home state.
Nominations of candidates for election to the ICJ are made by a group consisting of the members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), designated by each State.
[6] Unusually, the Brazilian national group of the PCA nominated two candidates: Paulo Borba Casella, Full Professor at the University of São Paulo, and Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant, Full Professor at the University of Minas Gerais and Founder and President of the International Law Center (CEDIN) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
A few weeks before, Casella had denounced that he had been forced to interrupt his candidacy by the "express determination" of Jair Bolsonaro, "for ideological reasons and in retaliation to positions defended by me in articles and interviews".
[9] As of 11 August 2022, the nominated candidates for the 2022 election are as follows:[10] France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.