Types of legal instrument

In international law, to regulate the day to day relations between the states, they
enter into a number of agreements. These agreements establish legal relations
between
states and crystallize the rules of international law to a maximum extent. From the
evolution of international law till date, numerous agreements have been entered by
states. However, various instruments entered by states in international relations are
often used with different names; in general, they are referred to as treaties. The
different names of the various legal instruments are treaties, covenants, charter,
conventions, protocol, and declarations.
Before discussing the various types of instruments, for a general understanding
the following note is very important to know about the procedural aspect of the
binding nature of these instruments
In international law, any agreement or treaty negotiated or signed by states will
not automatically come into force. In the negotiating stage itself, depending upon
the
number of states willing to sign the document, they fix a certain number of states to
ratify such agreement. Accordingly, after ratification of such number of member
states, the particular document will come into operation. This means, any legal
instrument entered in a particular year either may come into effect immediately or
may
take a longer period to come into existence. For example the Vienna Convention on
the
Law of Treaties was adopted by the States in 1969 (it is to be remembered that in
international law most of the agreements or instruments are named after the place
in
which country it is negotiated or signed). However, it came into effect only in 1980.

Though an instrument's coming into force maybe another year, it is still linked to
the
year in which it was originally adopted. Even if an instrument has come into
existence
due to ratification, it will be binding only on those states, which have ratified the
treaty,
and not applicable to states who signed. This means, after signature of a treaty, a
state
has to ratify it specifically. At times even if a state ratifies a particular instrument,

treaty
The term treaty had no exact definition until 1969. In 1969, to develop the legal
principles and to state the binding nature of legal instruments, a convention was
adopted namely, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969. According to the
Convention, a treaty is an international agreement entered between states in a
written
form, regulated by the principles of international law whatever may be title of such
agreement. The principles of an instrument may be stated in a single document or
may
spread into two or more documents. In case if they are spread into more than one,
all
the documents and principles to be read together for the binding nature of an
instrument or treaty.

Bilertal treaties
Bilateral treaty means any agreement entered between two nations confining to
the matters relating to them with specific interest between them. (For example India

entered a treaty with USA for the supply of Nuclear energy is a bilateral treaty).
These
treaties will come into force without ratification and reservations. These treaties will
be
in force, till the time the agreement achieves its objects. Once the purpose of the
agreement is over, the agreement will be terminated by a notification

Multilateral Treaty
Multilateral treaty means an agreement entered by majority of states to establish
new principles of international law or codify to accept existing customary norms to
regulate their multifarious activities. These treaties are similar to that of legislation
of
a country. These treaties will bring in uniform rules to
regulate the relations of states. Since the beginning of
nineteenth century till now, remarkable numbers of
multilateral agreements have been entered by the states. In
general, multilateral treaties are referred to as conventions
or covenants. These treaties impose an obligation on states
after the completion of technical formalities of signing,
ratification, to give affect by passing appropriate
legislation in the country. For example, the TRIPS
agreement, necessitated the Government of India to enact
specific legislations or bringing in modifications in the
existing enactments such as Law of Copyright, Patents
Act, Trade Marks, and Designs Act etc

Convention and Covenant

A Convention or Covenant is a multilateral agreement entered by States to

bring in new norms or to settle existing conflicting norms of international law. A
Convention may take a long time for the states to adopt into their municipal
legislations after the technical procedures are completed. At times, they may even
renegotiate to settle the conflicting issues by entering into bilateral agreements.
Whereas in the case of covenant, they are bound to implement the norms by
enacting
legislation. The covenants normally deal with the general welfare of the people
across
the world establishing duties on the states to protect the interests of individuals at
the
national level. The Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights have led to every government to give effect to a number of rights
and
duties guaranteed to individual by the States.