Sources of International Law Flashcards
Who are parties to treaties?
States
Certain international orgs with legal personality
third parties obligations in treaties
generally not bound unless they accept obligations or treaty passes into international customary law
dualist vs monist
dualist - international law must be ratified to be binding (ex. US)
monist - law made internationally automatically becomes binding (ex. Russia)
Presidential model vs parliamentary model in ratification
pres model - exec elected separately, ratification is harder
parliamentary model - exec from majority party, ratification is easier
Self executing vs non-self executing treaties
self-executing - treated the same as act from legislature, mirror image of legislation that already exists
non-self executing - have to be incorporated through domestic law through legislation
Reservation
parties can choose to not accept a portion of a treaty as long as it doesn’t defeat the purpose of the treaty
responses to reservations
- accept
- accept but issue same reservation with regards to reserving state
- object - undermines purpose, but it’s fine
- object - treaty is not enforceable between these two states
advantages to reservations
more flexible and allows more parties to join, triggers more discussion domestically
disadvantages to reservations
uneven enforcement, confusion bc of bilateral agreements within multilateral treaties
types of treaties
- contract - exchange or concession
- international legislation - regulate behavior between states
- international constitution - legal foundation for international body
- aspirational - setting goals for international society
Treaty termination
- treaty may provide for termination
- breach - grounds for suspending in whole or in part with breaching party or all states
Treaty definitions
vienna convention - written agreement between states
US constitution - made by pres and approved by senate
Treaty creation process
- state has a problem
- get other states on board
- exec branches create conferences/meetings
- write and circulate draft
- vote on draft - adoption
- authentication - adopted text is recognized
- signature
- ratification - goes to countries to be approved domestically
ratification vs. accession
ratification - party at time of treaty creation, approved by domestic govt
accession - added to treaty later, approved by domestic govt
Entry into force provision
- treaty only goes into force if enough states become parties
- before enough states join, treaty parties still have to adhere but mostly self-compliance
