Temporary application of international treaties: legal aspects

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.

Provisional Application of Treaties and Other Topics: The Seventy-Second Session of The International Law Commission

The International Law Commission (ILC) held its seventy-second session from April 26 to June 4 and from July 5 to August 6, 2021 in Geneva, under the chairmanship of Mahmoud Hmoud (Jordan). This session was originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, but had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic continued in 2021 to present health risks and travel difficulties for certain members; consequently, the Commission for the first time in its history held its session in a hybrid manner, with many members physically present in Geneva, while others participated online by means of Zoom. That approach required certain adjustments to the Commission's methods of work, but allowed the Commission to move forward in addressing the several topics on its current program of work.

Provisional Application of Energy Treaties by the Russian Federation

International agreements are of particular importance in interstate energy cooperation. The application by the Russian Federation of the mechanism of temporary application of treaties in the field of energy requires a comprehensive analysis, taking into account the problems that have arisen in connection with the provisional application of the Energy Charter Treaty and subsequent amendments to Article 79 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The general and sectoral approaches to the provisional application of treaties that exist in Russian practice need to be improved.The paper analyzes and compares the norms of international law and Russian legislation regulating the provisionary application of treaties, the works of Russian scientists, which highlight the general problems of the provisional application of treaties by the Russian Federation, as well as the final provisions of treaties of the Russian Federation in the field of energy.The author identifies common gaps in the norms of Russian legislation regulating the provisional application of treaties, trends and problems of the provisional application of multilateral and bilateral treaties by the Russian Federation in various energy sectors.The author concludes that the new approach should be based on a restrictive approach to the use of the institute of provisional application of treaties regarding terms and types of treaties. The treaties to which a special restrictive approach should be applied are to include those that have significant financial and economic consequences, provide for expenditures or lost revenues of the budget of the Russian Federation, regulate taxes, duties, and the provision of state credit; agreements on the borders, delimitation of maritime spaces, the status or regime of individual territories; and agreements that provide for the mandatory jurisdiction of judicial and arbitration bodies.The continuous improvement of international legal regulation in the field of energy should be a separate state task, since, despite numerous skeptical assessments, international law plays a special role and will be of great importance in the regulation of international relations, including in the field of energy.

Treaty-making Procedures

This chapter provides an overview of the treaty-making procedures in the European Union. It explains the historical evolution of primary law in the field and gives examples for each step under Article 218 TFEU (negotiation, signature, provisional application, and conclusion). Excerpts of European Court of Justice (ECJ) case law illustrate how these provisions are interpreted and applied in practice. The chapter also discusses the principles covering suspension and termination of EU agreements, and the ever more important system that allows the EU to contribute to the adoption of international secondary law under Article 218, paragraph 9 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). A final section describes EU practice for adopting non-legally binding instruments and reproduces the new guidance of December 2017 issued by the Council and the Commission in this respect after the ECJ’s judgment in the case relating to the EU–Swiss Memorandum of Understanding.

The Legal Regime of the Temporary Application of Protocols to Tax Agreements between Russia and Cyprus, Russia and Malta

Theoretical and practical aspects of provisional application of double taxation avoidance agreements are analysed in the article. The author analyses the conditions of provisional application of protocols on amendment of Russia’s tax treaties with Malta and with Cyprus of 2020. The Russian Federation as a rule resort to provisional application of international treaties only in exceptional cases when the treaty is of exceptional interest and there is a need in its “start” before its entering into force. The author draws attention to the fact that the provisional application of the treaty can be regulated both with indication on this condition in the treaty itself or with separate treaty. The author also provides examples from the practice of international cooperation into the tax sphere.