The law of treaties

The #lawoftreaties

 A treaty is a written international agreement concluded between States or other persons of International Law and governed by International Law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation.  In English, the term ‘treaty” is used as a generic term embracing all kinds of international agreements in written form.  In addition to the term “treaty”, many other terms are used, such as “accord”, “act”, “arrangement”, “charter”, “covenant”, “convention”, “declaration”, “general act”, “pact”, “protocol”, “statute”, as well as the term “agreement” itself.  Whatever the appellation of the agreement, it does not affect its validity under International Law. 

     Treaties can be traced back as far as the early-recorded history of Mankind.  Evidence for their existence has been found throughout the history. Treaties have been the major legal instruments for regulating relations between States.  States concluded treaties in every conceivable subject.  Ten of thousands treaties have been registered with the United Nations since 1946.  Until 1980, treaties had been governed by international customary law.  In 1969, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties was signed, codifying and developing existing customary rules; it came into force in 1980.

   The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties defines “treaty” as “an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by International Law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation.”  It further provides that it “does not apply to international agreements concluded between States and other subjects of international law or between such other subjects of international law, or to international agreements not in written form”.  These provisions exclude agreements between states which are governed by other than International Law, agreements between States and international organizations or between international organizations, and oral agreements.  The reason for the exclusion of these types of international agreements is to avoid complication and complexity if they are included in a single convention with written agreements between States, since the rules governing them differ in certain aspects from the rules governing written agreements between States.   A special convention applicable to agreements between states and international organizations, or between international organizations, namely “the Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations”, was signed in 1986.  However, this Convention has not yet entered into force....