s.II Treaty Formation, 7 Making the Treaty

From time immemorial, States have concluded treaties on all possible matters under the sun.1 Today, treaty-making has become an almost indispensable aspect of sovereignty—the ‘outward-looking’ facet of a State and one of the cornerstones of its relations with other States. Questions of treaty formation play a similarly central role in the formation of international law, witnessed most recently during the Copenhagen discussions on ‘formalizing’ an international environmental strategy and ongoing consultations on finalizing a comprehensive convention against...