the law of treaty. Flashcards
What is a Convention?
convention is an international agreement between countries, written down and governed by international law. It doesn’t matter what it’s called—convention, treaty, pact, etc. If it’s an agreement between states, it’s a convention.
Developing Rules for Treaties:
The Law of Treaties: This is the set of rules about how treaties are made, changed, and ended. It also explains how to interpret them, but it doesn’t deal with the actual content of the treaties (like what rights and duties they create).
Key Principles:
Free consent: Countries must agree freely to be part of a treaty.
Good faith: Countries must follow the treaty in good faith.
Pacta sunt servanda: This Latin phrase means “agreements must be kept.” It means once a country agrees to a treaty, they must stick to it.
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT):
The Vienna Convention is a set of rules for how treaties should be made and followed. It was created in 1969, and came into effect in 1980.
116 countries follow these rules today.
The Vienna Convention is based on long-established practices, so even if a country doesn’t formally agree to it, the rules still apply to them.
What Makes Something a “Treaty”?
For an agreement to be considered a “treaty,” it must meet four conditions:
Written: It must be written down.
Between States: The countries involved must be recognized by international law.
Governed by International Law: It has to be under international law.
Legal Obligation: The countries must intend to create real, binding legal duties.
Stages in Concluding a Treaty
- Negotiation (Article 7 VCLT): This is when countries send official representatives (like heads of state or foreign ministers) to talk about and negotiate the terms of the treaty.
- Adoption (Article 9 VCLT): Once the treaty text is agreed upon, it’s adopted at a meeting (like an international conference). Usually, a vote is needed, and two-thirds of countries must agree for it to pass. Unanimous agreement is rare (for example, the UN adopted the High Seas Treaty in 2023 after 20 years of negotiations).
- Authentication (Article 10 VCLT): This is when countries confirm that the text of the treaty is correct and final. This is typically done by signing the treaty.
- Consent (Article 11 VCLT): To agree to be bound by the treaty, a country can show its consent in different ways: signing, ratifying, or other means as agreed.
Ratification and Accession
Ratification (Article 14 VCLT): This is when a country formally agrees to follow the treaty. It happens after the country signs the treaty and follows its national process (like getting approval from the government or parliament). It turns the treaty into law for that country.
Accession (Article 15 VCLT): If a country wasn’t involved in negotiating or signing the treaty but later agrees to follow it, this is called accession. It’s like joining the treaty after it’s already been made.
Signed but Not Ratified
Signing a treaty doesn’t always mean a country is bound by it. Sometimes a country signs but doesn’t ratify, so they aren’t legally bound by the treaty. For example, Germany signed the 1958 Geneva Convention but didn’t ratify it, so the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said it wasn’t bound by it.
However, even if a country hasn’t ratified, once they sign a treaty, they must act in good faith and not do anything to prevent the treaty from being followed.
“Unsigning” a Treaty
Unsigning”: A country can “unsign” a treaty by officially declaring that they no longer intend to be part of it. For example, the U.S. signed the Rome Statute of the ICC but later decided not to ratify it. To “unsign,” they informed the UN they no longer wanted to be a part of it.
Similarly, Russia withdrew from the Rome Statute in 2016, citing dissatisfaction with the Court’s work. The official reason was to avoid international legal consequences related to Crimea and Eastern Ukraine.
