Part III Observance and Application of Treaties, 14 Treaties Establishing Objective Regimes

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salerno Francesco
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Principle Of Relativity ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Law

The issue of treaties establishing objective regimes has been neglected by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Building on the principle of relativity of treaties, the Convention only deals with the effects of specific treaty rules on third states. This chapter argues that third states never acquire the same status of states parties, even when they consent to the specific treaty rules that affect them. Analysing the significance of treaties establishing objective regimes under general international law, it clarifies that such treaties may affect third states even when they do not embody rules of customary law. Due to the relevance for the international legal order of the unique erga omnes regime created by the treaty, the situation regulated by it can no longer fall within the scope of the absolute ‘freedom’ previously accorded to third states.

Treaty withdrawal and recalcitrant States

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-240
Author(s):  
Joseph Crampin
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Binding Force ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
International Legal System ◽  
The Law

The recent prevalence of high-profile unilateral treaty withdrawals raises broader questions over trust in treaty-making. Given the foundational importance of trust in treaties to international law, these withdrawals present risks to the international legal order generally. The issue for international law is how it can regulate treaty withdrawal in a way that preserves trust in the international legal system. The problem of trust is twofold. If international law adopts too permissive a stance towards unilateral withdrawal, then this will undermine trust in the binding force of treaties: pacta sunt servanda. If it is too restrictive, it will undermine the authority of international law, since it will result in situations in which recalcitrant States (ie States which have decided no longer to comply with their obligations) disobey, and are seen to disobey, their obligations. The paper seeks to explore this tension that underlies the regulation of treaty withdrawal. First, it analyses historical approaches to the problem, and, second, how the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties has sought to resolve it. It then examines how the principle is and can be used to achieve a balance between integrity and authority that can assist international law in regulating withdrawal and recalcitrance in a manner that preserves trust in treaty-making.

Part I Conclusion of Treaties, 1 Are Agreements between States and Non-State Entities Rooted in the International Legal Order?

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Corten ◽  
Pierre Klein
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
Affirmative Answer ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Peace Agreements ◽  
National Jurisdiction ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Made In

Can peace agreements concluded between a State and a non-State entity produce legal effects in the international sphere, as mentioned in Article 3 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties? Could it be considered that, following the conclusion of such agreements, some areas that were traditionally conceived as pertaining to the national jurisdiction of States (such as the use of violence within national borders, or the choice of a political system) are as of now governed by international law? On the basis of numerous agreements reviewed in this study, a clearly affirmative answer would appear excessive. As far as the international legal effects of such instruments are concerned, much will depend on the specificities of each agreement and on the way it has been implemented. Most of these agreements prove to be rather ambiguous, a significant portion of their components evidencing their rooting in the domestic legal order. This ambiguity finds confirmation in the very pragmatic treatment of peace agreements by the Security Council and States when they call for compliance with these instruments. In the vast majority of cases, such demands are made in the name of the maintenance of international peace and security, without much attention being paid to the characterization in legal terms of the parties' undertakings under these agreements. It therefore appears difficult to reach clear-cut conclusions as to the legal effects of such peace agreements in the international sphere — and, as a consequence, as to their possible characterization as ‘treaties’ under international law.

The Development of International Law Since the War

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manley O. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
World War ◽  
The World ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
The Law ◽  
Made In

We are now approaching the end of the first decade following the World War. Perhaps we are sufficiently removed from the heat and passion of that struggle to attempt to gauge the progress which the world has made in the development of international law since it was ended. Ten years is a brief period in any field of history; but before this decade was begun, most of us felt that it was going to see great things accomplished toward broadening and strengthening and extending the law by which the relations of states are governed. The war brought a challenge to our international legal order which could hardly have failed to create for our generation an opportunity to leave an impression on international law, such as has been left by no other generation in the three hundred years since the time of Grotius. As the decade is ending, and as our generation begins to find its energies so absorbed in other tasks, an appraisal of the progress we have achieved may enable us to judge the use we have made of our opportunity and the extent to which it still exists.

The Construction of the Rebus Sic Stantibus Clause in International LawException, Rule, or Remote Spectator?

2020 ◽  
pp. 274-284
Author(s):  
Robert Kolb
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
The Third ◽  
First Case ◽  
The Law

This chapter attempts to shed some light on the rule-exception scheme through the lens of the doctrine of fundamental change of circumstances in international law. In classical international law, the doctrine was considered either as non-existent, or under the guise of private law analogies or specially construed for the purposes of international law. The extent of the ‘exception’ to the ordinary law wrought by the clause was different in the context of these three versions: nought in the first case, related to specific treaties in the second, related to the entire legal order in the third. With the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) codification of 1969, the reach of the doctrine was reduced to an extremely narrowly tailored treaty-exception. Since then, the doctrine has rarely been invoked—even more rarely with success—in international litigation. The inroad of that exception has thus been progressively narrowed, if not extinguished.

Part IV Treaty Application, 16 State Succession in Respect of Treaty Relationships

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hafner Gerhard ◽  
Novak Gregor
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Current State ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
State Succession ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Order State

This chapter returns to the international frame, asking how treaties apply in cases of disruption to the international legal order — State succession — a topic addressed by the 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties (VCSST). The present state of affairs relating to treaty succession suggests that only some of the VCSST’s provisions can serve as a reliable guide to the current State of customary international law (e.g. Article 11’s continuation of all boundary regimes, Article 15’s ‘moving treaty boundaries’ rule). Others constitute progressive development of international law (e.g. Article 31 in cases of incorporation; Article 34 in cases of separation). In any case, modern treaty succession distinguishes not only among the different cases of State succession, such as merger or dismemberment, but also among specific categories of treaties that are subject to different rules or principles. It is therefore difficult to identify a generally applicable legal regime of treaty succession.

Jus Cogens: A Complex Case of Constitutional Reasoning in International Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-262
Author(s):  
Miodrag Jovanović
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Complex Case ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Teleological Argument ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
State Actor ◽  
Jus Cogens ◽  
Peremptory Norms

Article 53 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties famously introduced a special class of international legal rules - jus cogens norms - without specifying its content. The paper proceeds by adopting the heuristic framework of constitutionalization of international law, arguing that jus cogens norms contribute to at least two constitutionalist functions - that of limiting the international governance and hierarchizing international legal order. Hence, it is possible to argue that jus cogens reasoning is a specific type of constitutional reasoning. Despite stipulated formal qualities of jus cogens norms, in trying to establish their content state actors are in the situation similar to constitutional adjudicators dealing with underdetermined legal content of a constitutional text. What directs the process of jus cogens reasoning is, thus, the particular nature of the subject-matter with which those norms deal. The last part of the paper provides the analytical reconstruction of the jus cogens constitutional reasoning, focusing on the process of ascertainment, which is to be taken by the community of states. It is argued that what ascertainment requires is, inter alia, resorting to a unique interpretative tool - reverse teleological argument - with the use of which the state actor can extract from the fundamental values of international legal order a class of peremptory norms of international law.

The Treaty on Treaties

1970 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard D. Kearney ◽  
Robert E. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
The Law ◽  
United Nations Charter ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Preparatory Work

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the product of two lengthy sessions of the hundred-and-ten-nation conference held in 1968 and 1969 and of preparatory work extending over fifteen years by the International Law Commission, is the first essential element of infrastructure that has been worked out in the enormous task of codifying international law pursuant to Article 13 of the United Nations Charter. The previous codification treaties, the four conventions on the Law of the Sea, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, did not, despite their intrinsic importance, grapple with the fundamentals of constructing a world legal order.

The Law of Treaties Beyond the Vienna Convention

2011 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
The Law ◽  
Jus Cogens ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
The Impact

This book offers an analysis of the law of treaties as it emerges from the interplay between the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and customary international law. It revisits the basic concepts underlying the provisions of the Vienna Convention, so as to determine the actual state of the law and its foreseeable development. In doing so, it examines some of the most controversial aspects of the law of treaties. The book first explores the influence exerted by the Vienna Convention on pre-existing customary law. Certain rules of the Convention which, at the time of its adoption, appeared to fall within the realm of progressive development, can now be regarded as customary international rules. Conversely, a number of provisions of the Convention, in particular those which have been the subject of subsequent codification work by the International Law Commission, have become obsolete. It then examines the impact exerted by the Vienna Convention on the development of other fields of international law, such as the law of international responsibility and the law of international organizations. The last section of the book is devoted to cross-cutting issues, with particular reference to the notion of jus cogens — a concept first used in the Vienna Convention in connection with the problem of the validity of treaties and which, afterwards, has acquired a legal significance going well beyond the Convention.

Sources in Legal-Positivist Theories

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Kammerhofer
Keyword(s):  
Structural Analysis ◽  
International Law ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Legal Order ◽  
International Legal Order ◽  
Legal Positivist ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Way

This chapter demonstrates that the Kelsen–Merkl Stufenbau theory of the hierarchy of norms avoids many of the misconceptions of orthodox scholarship. This theory is the closest there is to a legal common-sense theory of the sources of international law. It is close to the mainstream, but provides a solid theoretical basis. False necessities are here deconstructed: the sources are neither a priori nor external to the law. Applying the Stufenbau theory to international law, the chapter concludes by sketching out the possibilities of ordering the sources of international law. A structural analysis of the international legal order clears the way for level-headed research on this legal order’s daily operations: norm-conflict and its application and interpretation.

UN Convention on State Immunity: Form and Function

2006 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 407-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Gardiner
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
National Courts ◽  
State Immunity ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
The Law ◽  
And Function ◽  
Number Of Parties

The eventual product of the International Law Commission's (ILC) work on state immunity hasbeen in the form of a Convention. This prompts the question whether widespread ratification (or accession etc) will be necessary for clear rules of international law on state immunity to become firmlyestablished or whether a substantial codifying effect could be achieved even if the Convention does not attract a great number of parties. The latter has sometimes been said of much of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. As the law on state immunity has undergone much of its substantial development by practice of national courts (albeit that the piecemeal adoption and implementation of treaties has played some part), could this process not simply continue with the Convention providing guidance or a model? If the trend from absolute to restrictive immunity could occur by development of customary law, are there not still adequate means of consolidating customary law without the need for states actually to become parties to the treaty?

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