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Dr. Amirthalingam.

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Associate Professor of Law
TNNLS
Trichy
 DEFINITION
 PARTIES
 KINDS
 FORMALITIES
 SIGNATURE
 RATIFICATION
 ENTRY INTO FORCE
 OBLIGATION OF STATES
 SUSPENSION
 INTERPRETATION
“treaty” as – an international agreement
concluded between States – in written form,
– governed by international law, –whether
embodied in a single instrument or in two or
more related instruments and –whatever its
particular designation.

Article 2 (a) VCLT, 1969


 TREATY
 RATIFICATION
 FULL POWERS
 SIGNATURE
 RESERVATION
 NEGOTIATING STATE
 CONTRACTING STATE
 PARTY
 THIRD STATE
 INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION
 PARTICIPATION
 NEGOTIATION
 ACCESSION
 SIGNATURE
 RESERVATION
 RATIFICATION
 ENTRY INTO FORCE
Negotiating state means a state which took part in
the drawing up and adoption of the text of the treaty.
CONTRACTING STATE
Contracting state means a state which has
consented to be bound by the treaty, whether or not
the treaty has entered into force.
PARTY
Party means a state which has consented to be
bound by the treaty and for which the treaty is in
force.
THIRD STATE
Third state means a state not a party to the treaty
 Art . 11 – Means of expressing consent to be bound by a
Treaty
 Art. 12 – Consent to be bound by a treaty expressed by
signature
 Art. 13 – Consent to be bound by a treaty expressed by an
exchange of instruments constituting a treaty
 Art. 14 – Consent to be bound a treaty expressed by
Ratification, Acceptance or Approval
 Art. 15 – Consent to be bound by a treaty expressed by
Accession
 Art. 16 – Exchange or Deposit of instruments of
Ratification, Acceptance, Approval or Accession
 Art. 17 – Consent to be bound by part of a treaty and
choice of different provisions
RATIFICATION, ACCEPTANCE,
APPROVAL AND ACCESSION
mean in each case the international act so
named whereby a state established on the
international plane its consent to be bound
by a treaty.
 Reservation means a unilateral statement,
however phrased or named, made by a state,
when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or
acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to
exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain
provisions of the treaty in their application to
that State.
Article 2 (d)
 Art . 19 – Formulation of Reservation
 Art. 20 – Acceptance of and objection to
Reservation
 Art. 21 – Legal Effects of Reservation and of
objections to Reservation
 Art. 22 – Withdrawl of Reservations and objections
to Reservations
 Art. 23 – Procedure regarding Reservations
 PACTA SUNT SERVANDA
Every treaty in force upon the parties to it and must be
performed by them in good faith
Article 26
 Internal Law and Observance of Treaties
A party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as
justification for its failure to perform a treaty. This rule is
without prejudice to Article 46.
Article 27
 Art – 46 Provisions of Internal Law regarding competence
to conclude treaties
A treaty does not create either obligations or
rights for a Third State without its consent.
 A state may not invoke that fact that its consent to be
bound by a treaty has been expressed in violation of
provisions of its internal law regarding competence to
conclude treaties as invalidating its consent unless
that violation was manifest and concerned a rule of
its internal law of fundamental importance
 A violation is manifest if it would be objectively
evident to any state conducting itself in the matter in
accordance with normal practice and in good faith.
Article 46
A treaty is void, at the time of its conclusion, if
conflicts with a peremptory norm of general
international law. For the purposes of the present
Convention, a peremptory norm of general
international law is a norm accepted and
recognised by the international community of
States as a whole as a norm from which no
derogation is permitted and which can be modified
only by a subsequent norm of general international
law having the same character. Article 53
If the new peremptory norm of general
international law emerges, any existing treaty
which is in conflict with that norm becomes
void and terminates.
Article 64
The present convention is subject to
ratification. The instrument of ratification
shall be deposited with the Secretary
General of the United Nations
Article 82
The present convention shall remain open
for accession by any state belonging to
any of the categories mentioned in Article
81. The instrument of accession shall be
deposited with the Secretary General of
the United Nations.
Article 83
The present convention shall enter into force on
the 30th day following the date of deposit of the
thirty-fifth instrument of ratification or accession.
For each state ratifying or acceding to the
Convention after the deposit of the thirty-fifth
instrument of ratification or accession, the
Convention shall enter into force on the thirtieth
day after deposit by such State of its instrument
of ratification or accession.
Article 84
 Art. 46 – Provisions of internal law regarding
competence to conclude Treaties
 Art. 47 – specific restrictions on authority to express te
consent of a state
 Art. 48 – Error
 Art. 49 – Fraud
 Art. 50 – Corruption of a representative of a State
 Art. 51 – Coercion of a representative of a State
 Art. 52 – Coercion of a State by the threat or use of
force
 Art. 53 – Jus Cogens
 Art . 54 – Termination of or withdrawl of the operation of
treaties
 Art. 55 – Reduction of the parties to a multilateral treaty
below the number necessary for its entry into force
 Art. 56 – Denunciation of or withdrawl from a treaty
containing no provision regarding termination, denunciation
or withdrawl
 Art. 57 – Suspension of the operation of a treaty under its
provisions or by consent of the parties
 Art. 58 – Suspension of the operation of a multilateral
treaty by agreement between certain of the parties only
 Art . 59 – Termination or suspension of the
operation of treaty implied by conclusion of a
later treaty
 Art. 60 – Termination or suspension of the
operation of a treaty as consequence of its
breach
 Art. 61 – Supervening Impossibility of
performance
 Art. 62 – Fundamental change of circumstances
 Intention of the parties to the treaties
 Grammatical interpretation
 Object and context of treaty
 Reasonableness and consistency
 Principle of effectiveness
 Recourse to extrinsic material
 … a state has made and maintained
reservation which has been objected to by
one or more parties to the Convention but
not by others, can be regarded as being a
party to the Convention if the reservation is
compatiable with the object and purpose of
the Convention.
Article 30

 Article 103 of United Nations Charter

 Lex posterior derogat legi prori


.. the question that the existence of a right acquired
under an instrument drawn between other state is…
one to be decided in each particular case: it must be
ascertained whetehr the states which have stipulated
in favour of a third state meant to create for that state
an actual rights which the latter has accepted as such.
… for the benefit of all nations of the world, for an
obligation to be imposed by a treaty upon a third
state, the express agreement of that state in
writing is required, whereas in the case of
benefits granted to third states, their assent is
presumed in the absence of contrary intention.
This is because the general tenor of customary
international law has leaned in favour of the
validity of rights granted to third states. But
against that of obligations imposed upon them, in
the light of basic principles relating to state
sovereignty, equality and non-interference.
 The first duty of a tribunal which is called upon to
interpret and apply the provisions of a treaty is to
endeavour to give effect to them in their natural or
ordinary meaning in the context which they occur.
Whether a concessional agreement is a treaty?
A concessional agreement between a private company
and a state constituted is not in the sense of a treaty.
… a treaty may have a variety of provisions, not of all of
which constitute legal obligations.

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