treaty

treaty,

in international law, formal agreement between sovereign states or organizations of states. The term treaty is ordinarily confined to important formal agreements, while less formal international accords are called conventions, acts, declarations, or protocols.

A treaty ordinarily deals with the rights and duties of nations, but treaties may also grant specific rights to private individuals. Although treaties deal with a great variety of subjects, they are commonly classified under a few heads. Political treaties deal with (among other things) alliances, war, cessions of territory, and rectification of boundaries. Commercial treaties may govern fisheries, navigation, tariffs, and monetary exchange. Legal treaties concern extradition of criminals, patent and copyright protection, and the like.

Treaties are designed to regularize the intercourse of nations, and, as such, they are the source of most international law. In some countries treaties are a part of the law of the land and are binding upon all persons. In the United States the Supreme Court has held that a treaty automatically abrogates any state or federal statute in conflict with it.

Treaties have existed ever since states came into existence. Records survive of Mesopotamian treaties dating before 3000 B.C., and in the Old Testament many treaties are mentioned. The Greeks and the Romans had elaborate ceremonials to emphasize the sanctity of treaties, and many current treaty practices have classical antecedents.

Negotiation, Ratification, and Interpretation

A treaty is negotiated by duly accredited representatives of the executive branch of the government; for the United States negotiations are ordinarily conducted by officials of the Dept. of State under the authority of the President. The preliminaries are not usually open to the public, but the record of all protocolprotocol
, term referring to rules governing diplomatic conduct or to a variety of written instruments. Examples of the latter are authenticated minutes of international conferences; preliminary agreements, or statements of principle, which eventuate in a formal treaty; and
..... Click the link for more information. (i.e., the minutes) is preserved for use in case the treaty provisions require subsequent interpretation. Technical experts draft the text, which the government representatives then sign.

The treaty is next ratified by the signatory states in accordance with their regular practice. In the United States the Constitution requires that a treaty must be approved by two thirds of the Senate (executive agreements, however, which are undertaken through the President's powers and do not need the Senate's approval, account for a large number of the international agreements of the United States). It has been argued that such wartime agreements as those made by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Yalta ConferenceYalta Conference,
meeting (Feb. 4–11, 1945), at Yalta, Crimea, USSR, of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
..... Click the link for more information. were in effect secret treaties. A treaty comes into effect when the ratifications are formally exchanged.

Members of the United Nations are required to register their treaties with that organization (following the like practice of the League of Nations), and a treaty that has not been registered may not be invoked before a UN agency. If treaties between UN members conflict with their obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter takes precedence.

The interpretation of treaties, like that of all legal documents, may present great difficulties. There is no tribunal with compulsory and final jurisdiction to interpret a treaty; parties may, however, voluntarily submit a dispute to the International Court of Justice (World Court) or the Permanent Court of Arbitration (Hague Tribunal).

Termination

Treaties may come to an end in various ways. Most provide for a date of expiration or a time at which notice to terminate must be given if the treaty is not to continue in effect for another specified period. Treaties terminate if one of the signatory states becomes politically extinct or (in the case of political treaties) if the parties are at war with one another. The outbreak of war need not necessarily bring a treaty to an end, however, and provisions compatible with a state of hostilities remain in force, as long as they are not expressly terminated. Treaties relating to the laws of war, of course, remain in effect during hostilities. A treaty may be terminated by mutual consent, and breach of a treaty by one party entitles the other to abrogate it.

Bibliography

See H. Blix, Treaty-making Power (1960); P. Reuter, Introduction to the Law of Treaties (1989); A. D. McNair, The Law of Treaties (rev. ed. 1986); J. A. Grenville and B. Wasserstein, The Major International Treaties Since 1945 (1988).

treaty

1. a. a formal agreement or contract between two or more states, such as an alliance or trade arrangement b. the document in which such a contract is written 2. any international agreement 3. an agreement between two parties concerning the purchase of property at a price privately agreed between them 4. in Canadaa. any of the formal agreements between Indian bands and the federal government by which the Indians surrender their land rights in return for various forms of aid b. (as modifier): treaty Indians
http://fletcher.tufts.edu/multilaterals.html

treaty

Related to treaty: Treaty of Westphalia

Treaty

A compact made between two or more independent nations with a view to the public Welfare.

A treaty is an agreement in written form between nation-states (or international agencies, such as the United Nations, that have been given treaty-making capacity by the states that created them) that is intended to establish a relationship governed by International Law. It may be contained in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments such as an exchange of diplomatic notes. Various terms have been used for such an agreement, including treaty, convention, protocol, declaration, charter, Covenant, pact, act, statute, exchange of notes, agreement, modus vivendi ("manner of living" or practical compromise), and understanding. The particular designation does not affect the agreement's legal character.

Though a treaty may take many forms, an international agreement customarily includes four or five basic elements. The first is the preamble, which gives the names of the parties, a statement of the general aims of the treaty, and a statement naming the plenipotentiaries (the persons invested with the power to negotiate) who negotiated the agreement and verifying that they have the power to make the treaty. The substance of the treaty is contained in articles that describe what the parties have agreed upon; these articles are followed by an article providing for ratification and the time and place for the exchange of ratifications. At the end of the document is a clause that states "in witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have affixed their names and seals" and a place for signatures and dates. Sometimes additional articles are appended to the treaty and signed by the plenipotentiaries along with a declaration stating that the articles have the same force as those contained in the body of the agreement.Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, of the U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to negotiate and ratify treaties, but he must obtain the advice and consent of the Senate (in practice solicited only after negotiation); two-thirds of the senators present must concur. Article I, Section 10, of the Constitution forbids the states to enter into a "treaty, alliance, or confederation," although they may enter into an "agreement or compact" with other states, domestic or foreign, but only with the consent of Congress.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Missouri v. Holland, 252 U.S. 416, 40 S. Ct. 382, 64 L. Ed. 641 (1920), established that U.S. treaties are superior to state law. Acts of Congress, however, are equivalent to a treaty. Thus, if a treaty and a law of Congress are inconsistent, the one later in time prevails. The Court has never found a treaty to be unconstitutional, and few treaties have been challenged. In general, the Court views a dispute over a treaty as a Political Question outside its jurisdiction.

Traditionally, international law required treaties to be ratified in the same form by all parties. Consequently, reservations or amendments proposed by one party had to be accepted by all. Because of the large number of participating states, this unanimity rule has proved difficult to enforce in modern multilateral treaties sponsored by international agencies for the purpose of creating legal regimes or codifying rules of international law. Where agreement exists on the essential elements of a treaty, international law increasingly is allowing reservations as to minor points not unanimously accepted. Treaties for which ratification is specified come into effect upon the exchange of ratifications between the parties or upon deposit of the ratifications with a designated party or international agency, such as the Secretariat of the United Nations.

A treaty may be terminated in accordance with specifications in the treaty or by consent of the parties. War between the parties does not invariably terminate treaties, as some treaties are made to regulate the conduct of hostilities and treatment of prisoners. Other treaties may be suspended for the duration of the hostilities and then resumed. An unjustified, unilateral abrogation of a treaty may give rise to possible international claims for any injury suffered by the other parties.

Treaties are usually interpreted according to the ordinary sense of their words in context and the apparent purposes to be achieved. If the meaning of the language is unclear or there is doubt that it expresses the intention of the parties, the work product of the negotiation process may be consulted as well as other extrinsic evidence.

treaty

n. a pact between nations which, if entered into by the United States through its Executive Branch, must be approved by "two-thirds of the Senators present," under Article II, section 2 of the Constitution, to become effective. Presidents sometimes get around the Senate by entering into "Executive Agreements" with leaders of other countries which are a mode of cooperation and not enforceable treaties.

treaty

an agreement. The word is usually used of an agreement between states in international law, but it is also used in the phrase PRIVATE TREATY of the sale of property between individuals.

TREATY, international law. A treaty is a compact made between two or more independent nations with a view to the public welfare treaties are for a perpetuity, or for a considerable time. Those matters which are accomplished by a single act, and are at once perfected in their execution, are called agreements, conventions and pactions.
2. On the part of the United States, treaties are made by the president, by and with the consent of the senate, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur. Const. article 2, s. 2, n. 2.
3. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation; Const. art. 1, s. 10, n. 1; nor shall any state, without the consent of congress, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power. Id. art. 1, see. 10, n. 2; 3 Story on the Const. Sec. 1395.
4. A treaty is declared to be the supreme law of the land, and is therefore obligatory on courts; 1 Cranch, R. 103; 1 Wash. C. C. R. 322 1 Paine, 55; whenever it operates of itself without the aid of a legislative provision; but when the terms of the stipulation import a contract, and either of the parties engages to perform a particular act, the treaty addresses itself to the political, not the judicial department, and the legislature must execute the contract before it can become a rule of the court. 2 Pet. S. C. Rep. 814. Vide Story on the Constitut. Index, h.t.; Serg. Constit. Law, Index, h.t.; 4 Hall's Law Journal, 461; 6 Wheat. 161: 3 Dall. 199; 1 Kent, Comm. 165, 284.
5. Treaties are divided into personal and real. The personal relate exclusively to the persons of the contracting parties, such as family alliances, and treaties guarantying the throne to a particular sovereign and his family. As they relate to the persons they expire of course on the death of the sovereign or the extinction of his family. Real treaties relate solely to the subject-matters of the convention, independently of the persons of the contracting parties, and continue to bind the state, although there may be changes in its constitution, or in the persons of its rulers. Vattel, Law of Nat. b. 2, c. 12, 183-197.

treaty

trea·ty

treaty

trea•ty

treaty

treaty

treaty

treaty

treaty

treaty,

Negotiation, Ratification, and Interpretation

Termination

Bibliography

treaty

treaty

Treaty

treaty

treaty

treaty

Synonyms for treaty

noun agreement

Synonyms

Synonyms for treaty

noun a formal, usually written settlement between nations

Synonyms

Synonyms for treaty

noun a written agreement between two states or sovereigns

Synonyms

Related Words