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Is it randomly or by some rotating roster?

In particular, at the pre-trial hearing (transcript in English, YouTube), why was a French-speaking (Romanian) judge (Iulia Antoanella Motoc) assigned to the case (even though Duterte is perfectly fluent in English and not French and the Philippines is a country with English and not French as an official language)?

Was no English-speaking judge available or was this thought to be of no consequence?

She kept pronouncing his name "Dutert" (with the English translator going along and faithfully saying the same). This caused some amusement and derision in the Philippines (and probably unnecessarily reduced the Court's credibility in the eyes of Filipinos). The translations and audio involved also caused some hiccups that would've been unnecessary were the judge English-speaking.

user182601
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1 Answers1

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The selection is made by the President.

Article 39 of the Rome Statute specifies that:

The assignment of judges to divisions shall be based on the nature of the functions to be performed by each division and the qualifications and experience of the judges elected to the Court, in such a way that each division shall contain an appropriate combination of expertise in criminal law and procedure and in international law. The Trial and Pre-Trial Divisions shall be composed predominantly of judges with criminal trial experience.

Language is not a factor specified by statute in assignment to cases. The working languages of the Court are both English and French (Article 50). Translation is provided to accused persons where necessary for fairness (Article 55).

Jen
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