Part I Conclusion of Treaties, 5 Provisional Application of Treaties in International Law: The Energy Charter Treaty Awards

Author(s):  
Arsanjani Mahnoush H ◽  
Reisman W Michael

The tension between the often urgent need for effective legal arrangements in modern international law and the much slower internal procedures for finalization of commitment to treaties has lead to the practice of provisional application of treaties. Many treaties provide for their provisional application pending final ratification by the states parties and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties has codified authoritative practice. But two recent arbitral awards, in applying Article 45 of the Energy Charter Treaty, have created some confusion.

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-62
Author(s):  
Veronika Shcherbyna ◽  
Ivanna Maryniv

Problem setting. Nowadays the problem of the provisional application of treaties can be described as actual. It is no accident that it has been the subject of the attention of the United Nations International Law Commission with the task of elaborating the most important problems of international law. Furthermore, the above-mentioned subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly recognized the need to analyze the provisional application of treaties, the need for the progressive development and codification of international law in respect of the topic dealt with in this article. Аnalysis of research and publications. Aspects of the problem of provisional application of treaties are reflected primarily in the works of in the works of I.I. Lukashuk, O.V. Kyivets, O.V. Pushniak, I.I. Maryniv, T. Leber. Target of research is to describe the legal institution of the provisional introduction of international treaties and to find reasons for its use. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the question of the temporary use of an international treaty as a fundamental institution of international law. The study discusses the need for provisional application of treaties. Attention was paid to the works of legal academics, who had considered this issue, their works and summaries were reviewed regarding the question under consideration. The author analyzed the formulations of the article 25 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Legal aspects and shortcomings were considered. First of all, it was noted that there is no definition of the temporary application of international treaties in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and article 25 of the Convention had been criticized for being difficult to understand and lacking legal precision. In the article, the author noted that in general, the provisional use takes place before the entry into force of the treaty, when countries have not yet completed the necessary internal state procedures for its entry into force and have not internationally expressed consent to be bound. The author also stressed that the application of the treaty before it enters into force or will enter in the moment when it is implemented, the parties will address to their commitments and thus the object of the treaty would disappear. The author highlighted another legal aspect of the international legal institution under consideration is that, in order to implement the institution of provisional application of treaties, A special law and regulations may be enacted in domestic law (constitutional and legislative). What is more, the author mentioned that it is appropriate to devote attention to the work of the father of the national science on the law of international treaties I.I. Lukashuk. Conclusions. The author concluded that the institution of the provisional use of treaties is one of the key institutions in the law of treaties enabling the parties to urgently address cooperation issues. Another conclusion of the author of this article is that countries resort to this legal instrument under consideration for several reasons: urgent resolution of issues to which the relevant treaties apply; the desire of countries to adopt and immediately implement confidence-building measures; preventing time gaps in the operation of a number of international treaties, which have been successively adopted and replace each other on the same subject.


Author(s):  
Hobér Kaj

This chapter discusses the interpretation of the Energy Charter Treaty. The ECT is a multilateral treaty during the negotiation of which approximately fifty States participated, albeit to varying degrees. It goes without saying that in such a setting, there are many competing interests to take into account, often resulting in ambiguous treaty provisions. Indeed, almost every dispute based on the ECT involves issues of treaty interpretation. The law applicable to the interpretation of treaties is international law, unless the parties to the treaty in question have agreed otherwise. For all practical purposes, the most important international document when it comes to treaty interpretation is the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Article 2(1)(a) of the Vienna Convention 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’. There is little doubt that the ECT is covered by this definition. Article 26(6) of the ECT provides that disputes under it are to be resolved on the basis of its provisions and ‘applicable rules and principles of international law’. The chapter then considers Articles 31—3 of the Vienna Convention, which deal with the interpretation of treaties.


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 258-262
Author(s):  
Anne van Aaken

While Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) prescribe the rules of interpretation for international treaty law as “disciplining rules,” the rules of interpretation themselves are understudied from a cognitive psychology perspective. This is problematic because, as Jerome Frank observed, “judges are incurably human,” like everybody else. I submit that behavioral approaches could provide insights into how biases and heuristics affect the way judges and other interpreters use the VCLT rules.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malgosia Fitzmaurice

The subject-matter of this article are the issues of treaty law as expounded in the Judgment in the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros case. The following problems are discussed: unilateral suspension and abandonment of obligations deriving from the binding treaty; the principle of fundamental change of circumstances; unilateral termination of a treaty; applicability of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in this case; legal status of so-called ‘provisional solution’; impossibility of performance and material breach of treaty; the application of the principle of ‘approximate application’; and the principle pacta sunt servanda. The issues arc discussed at the background of the Drafts of the International Law Commission.


2021 ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Anders Henriksen

This chapter examines the principles and rules of the international law of treaties as reflected in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). It discusses the treaty as a legal concept and provides an overview of the regulation of who can conclude treaties, how consent to be bound by a treaty is expressed, the rules on entry into force, treaty reservations, the interpretation of treaties, amendments and modifications, the invalidity of treaties and the termination of and withdrawal from treaties. The VCLT is meant to be applied to all types of written treaties and it therefore governs treaties as diverse as a bilateral agreement to construct infrastructure as well as a multilateral document such as the UN Charter. In practice, however, the concrete application of the Convention may differ depending on the type of treaties.


2021 ◽  
pp. 33-48
Author(s):  
Ilias Bantekas ◽  
Efthymios Papastavridis

This chapter examines the rules of international law governing the birth, the life, and the death of treaties. Treaties, a formal source of international law, are agreements in written form between States or international organizations that are subject to international law. A treaty falls under the definition of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), no matter what form or title it may have. The most important factor is that it sets out obligations or entitlements under international law. The VCLT enumerates the rules governing the ‘birth’, ie the steps from the negotiation until the entry into force of the treaty; the ‘life’, ie the interpretation and application of the treaty; and its ‘demise’, ie its termination. The two fundamental tenets are, on the one hand, the principle ‘pacta sunt servanda’ and, on the other, the principle of contractual freedom of the parties.


Author(s):  
Martin Dixon ◽  
Robert McCorquodale ◽  
Sarah Williams

Treaties are an important source of international law that are used with increasing frequency to codify, crystallise and develop international law. They are particularly useful when States need to change or reorganise their obligations under international law rapidly, sometimes to reflect the changed reality of international society. This chapter begins with the definition of a treaty. It then discusses the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969; formation and application of treaties; reservations to treaties; interpretation of treaties; invalidity of treaties; and termination of treaties.


Author(s):  
Anders Henriksen

This chapter examines the principles and rules of the international law of treaties as reflected in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). It discusses the treaty as a legal concept and provides an overview of the regulation of who can conclude treaties, how consent to be bound by a treaty is expressed, the rules on entry into force, treaty reservations, the interpretation of treaties, amendments and modifications, the invalidity of treaties, and the termination of and withdrawal from treaties. The VCLT is meant to be applied to all types of written treaties and it therefore governs treaties as diverse as a bilateral agreement to construct infrastructure as well as a multilateral document such as the UN Charter. In practice, however, the concrete application of the Convention may differ depending on the type of treaties.


2019 ◽  
pp. 163-193
Author(s):  
Gleider Hernández

This chapter describes the law of treaties. As defined in Article 2(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), a treaty can be embodied in a single instrument, or in two or more related instruments. It is a written agreement; between international legal subjects; and governed by international law. In short, a treaty must be written in order to fall under the scope of the VCLT. Though this does not mean that oral agreements have no effect in international law, it does mean that the law of treaties embodied in the VCLT does not govern oral agreements. While States are the most active actors entering into treaty relations, international organizations may also enter into treaties, whether between them or with a State. Ultimately, because a treaty’s purpose is to create binding international legal obligations, the law of treaties applies to agreements governed by international law.


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