Treaty Interpretation. By Richard Gardiner. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, Pp. xxi, 407. Index. $180, £84.95, cloth; £24,99, paper. - On the Interpretation of Treaties: The Modern International Law as Expressed in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. By Ulf Linderfalk. Dordrecht: Springer, 2008. Pp. xxi, 386. Index. €99.95.

2010 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-334
Author(s):  
Malgosia Fitzmaurice
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Oxford University Press

4 Interpreting the Energy Charter Treaty

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hobér Kaj
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Energy Charter Treaty ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Rules And Principles ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Single Instrument ◽  
International Document ◽  
Multilateral Treaty

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.

scholarly journals ‘Codification by Interpretation’: The International Law Commission as an Interpreter of International Law

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-200
Author(s):  
Danae Azaria
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Customary International Law ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
Per Se ◽  
The Law ◽  
International Law Commission ◽  
Law Commission

Abstract This article argues that the International Law Commission (ILC) interprets international law. In recent years, in documents intended to remain non-binding, the Commission has made interpretative pronouncements about a treaty in force, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and customary international law reflected therein. This development is called the ‘codification by interpretation’ paradigm in this article. This article argues that interpretation falls within the ILC’s function, and it analyses the effects of the Commission’s interpretative pronouncements. It explains that the ILC’s interpretative pronouncements are not per se binding or authentic. However, they may trigger an interpretative dialogue with states. The ILC’s interpretative pronouncements may constitute a focal point for coordination among states, a subsidiary means for determining rules of law and a supplementary means of (treaty) interpretation. The aim of the ILC’s ‘codification-by-interpretation’ paradigm in the four topics considered in this article is to introduce clarity and predictability into secondary rules on the law of treaties, thus ensuring the clarity and predictability of primary treaty rules across all fields of international law. The ILC endeavours to convince states to use international law as a medium by which they regulate their affairs.

Book Reviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 649-680
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Law School ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Professor Emeritus ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
The Law ◽  
Oxford University Press

W. A. Schabas, The Trial of the Kaiser, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2018, 432 pages, ISBN 9780198833857. (Prof. J. M. Reijntjes, Prof.em. in Criminal Law, The Open University of the Netherlands and the University of Curaçao.) Harold Hongju Koh, The Trump Administration and International Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2018, 232 pages, ISBN 9780190912185. (David l. Sloss, John A. and Elizabeth H. Sutro Professor of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law) Gina Heathcote, Feminist Dialogues on International Law: Success, Tensions, Futures, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2019, 256 pages, ISBN 9780199685103. (Aoife O'Donoghue, Professor of International Law and Governance, Durham University Law School) Steven Wheatley, The Idea of International Human Rights Law, Oxford University Press, New York 2019, 204 pages, ISBN 978-0-19-874984-4. (Mark A. Chinen, Professor of Law at the Seattle University School of Law and a Fellow of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality) Marco Longobardo, The Use of Force in Occupied Territory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018, xxix+320 pages, ISBN 9781108473415. (Michael Bothe, Professor Emeritus of Public Law, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main) Shavana Musa, Victim Reparation Under the Ius Post Bellum: An Historical and Normative Perspective, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, 290 pages, ISBN 9781108471732. (Dr. Jens Iverson, Assistant Professor of Public International Law, Leiden Law School, Leiden University) Russell Buchan, Cyber Espionage and International Law, Hart, Oxford 2019, xxviii+219 pages, ISBN 9781782257363. (François Delerue, Research Fellow in Cyberdefense and International Law, Institut de Recherche stratégique de l'Ecole militaire (IRSEM) and Lecturer, Sciences Po Paris) Alejandro Rodiles, Coalitions of the Willing and International Law: The Interplay Between Formality and Informality, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018, xx+287 pages, ISBN 978-1-10-849365-9. (Matteo Tondini, Legal Advisor and Researcher Member, Italian Group, International Society for Military Law and the Law of War) Cindy Wittke, Law in the Twilight: International Courts and Tribunals, the Security Council and the Internationalisation of Peace Agreements Between State and Non-State Parties, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018, 244 pages, ISBN 9781108335676. (Kimana Zulueta-Fülscher, Head of International IDEA's MyConstitution Programme (Yangon, Myanmar)) P. Chandrasekhara Rao and Philippe Gautier, The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea: Law, Practice and Procedure, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham 2018, xxvii+363 pages, ISBN 9781786433008. (Valentin J. Schatz, Research Associate, Chair of International Law of the Sea and International Environmental Law, Public International Law and Public Law (Alexander Proelß), Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg) Lloyd Freeburn, Regulating International Sport. Power, Authority and Legitimacy, Brill/Nijhoff, Leiden 2018, 277 pages, ISBN 978-90-04-37978-7. (Christian J. Tams, Chair of International Law, University of Glasgow; Director, Glasgow Centre of International Law & Security)

Part V Treaty Interpretation, 19 The Vienna Convention Rules on Treaty Interpretation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gardiner Richard
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Single Set

This chapter offers a nuanced account of one of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties’s seminal contributions to international law — a single set of interpretative ‘principles’ if not actual rules. It addresses two questions. The first is in what sense are the Vienna rules on treaty interpretation ‘rules’? The second is how are the rules to be used in interpreting treaties? The answer to the first question provides much of the answer to the second one. But the second is worth additional attention, mainly because the rules’ application in practice reveals interpretations that do not stand out from simply reading them.

Part IV Treaty Application, 18 Treaty Conflicts and Systemic Fragmentation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borgen Christopher J
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Conflict Avoidance ◽  
Treaty Interpretation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Fragmentation Of International Law

This chapter examines treaty conflicts and the systemic fragmentation of international law more generally. It focuses on fragmentation through the optic of conflicting obligations between treaties, as well as, to a lesser extent, between a treaty and another source of law. The chapter proceeds in three parts. Part I reviews the causes of normative conflict. Part II examines the various ways a treaty can conflict with another treaty or source of law. Part III surveys different techniques for addressing normative conflict via conflict avoidance clauses, treaty interpretation, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, and the classic canons of treaty construction (lex prior, lex posterior, and lex specialis). The chapter concludes with a discussion of the broader theme concerning international law’s systemic fragmentation.

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