LECTURE 10 - treaties Flashcards
Basic Principles of treaties
- International Law consent-
based/consensual system
– Consent must be explicit,
cannot be assumed - Agreements made between
states - Goal is to achieve common
aims - Central instrument in public
international law is a ‘Treaty’
Treaty conditions
Principle that agreements between
states binding
– Historically ‘witnesses’ or guarantors
employed
* Far less need for this now
* Central set of ‘rules’ for making treaties is
the Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties
which leads us to…
the set of rules for making treaties
Vienna Convention On the Law of Treaties:
1. entering into a CONTRACT 2. treaties are not a threat or obligation, but rather instrument to facilitate cooperation - collective wins
3 main types of int agreements
(Treated equal under Vienna Convention)
- treaty contract between smaller group of states
- charter sets up un, how it works, rules of membership, etc
- convention set a rule of how to do something, opening up to those who are not even yet in the treaty
treaty definition
*an international agreement concluded between States inwritten form,
*governed by international law,
*embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments,
*can be bilateral or multilateralif ratified by parties
charter definition
- the constituent treaties of
international organizations - provides rules and regulations for
instiution’s functioning, - can set limitations on role of non-
signatories (eg. UN Charter, ICJ
Charter)
convention definition
- (broader meaning ) all international agreements
- (specific meaning) formal multilateral (3 or more parties, ie. govs) treaties with many parties
IN B0TH CASES:
- open for participation by the
international community as a whole/ by large number of states (ie. Paraguay doesn’t have a coast but they might want to sign on nonetheless) - usually the negotiated under the
protection of an international
organization
4 steps to make a treaty
- Identification of needs and goals
- Negotiation
- Adoption & signature
- Ratification (+ implementation,
modification, and amendment)
treaties are so complicated and arduous to make that they are only made if needed and all options exhausted
negotiation of a treaty (vienna con)
- Every State possesses capacity to conclude treaties
- A person can represent the state for the purpose of adopting and authenticating a treaty if that person has appropriate full powers.
who negotiates treaties?
- heads of state
- heads of diplomatic missions
- representatives accredited by States to an international
conference
- ie. US president negotiates treaty and senate ratifies them
- metaphorically speaking, shoot the messenger, implications can be diff to define
International Negotiations as
Contact Sport: Leads to… International Politics
- The “Green Room”
– The coffee break and the corridor deal - Pressure on the capital back home
– Negotiators receiving new instructions - Manipulation and deployment of procedure
- Media as negotiating tool and tactic
3 ways to interpret treaties
- discover the objective
meaning of a treaty - focus on the intent of the
treaty drafters - focus on realizing the goals of
the drafters
* Teleological approach
treaties and politics
- A state’s internal laws cannot exempt it from compliance with international law;
– Has caused many problems especially in the areas of trade and
environment.
* See Canada and the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples - Governments use international law to justify their actions even when their legality is questionable.
– legality of an action depends on one’s POV
* Case of Gulf War Two
why obey/observe a treaty?
- International law depends on subjects keeping their agreements and acting in good faith
* A purposefully constructed reality - Fear of sanction, reprisal, or
reciprocity - Risk of being labelled a ‘rogue’ state
