Introduction

Subject(s):

Diplomatic immunity — Diplomatic missions — Diplomatic relations — Human rights remedies

This introductory chapter outlines the development of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, an international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between sovereign States. It elaborates three key details why the Convention serves as an important legal framework that regulates international relations. First, the Convention guarantees the efficacy and security of the machinery through which States conduct diplomacy, and without this machinery States cannot construct law, whether by custom or by agreement on matters of substance. The Convention constitutes the procedural framework for the construction of international law and international relations. Secondly, reciprocity forms a constant and effective sanction for the observance of nearly all the rules of the Convention, such as the treatment of representatives or diplomats abroad. Thirdly, the Convention never loses sight of the need to find solutions which would be acceptable to governments and to national Parliaments as a whole.