Part III Conclusion, 10 Criticism, Themes, Issues, and Conclusions

Subject(s):

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties — Rules of treaty interpretation — Most-favoured-nation treatment (MFN)

This chapter argues that the Vienna rules provide a framework for interpretative reasoning for all treaties, even if they only take the interpreter part of the way; that the more vague the wording of a treaty, the greater scope the interpreter has to exercise discretion; but that such exercise of discretion needs to be based on a full understanding of all the rules and must be carried out in good faith. The chapter pays particular attention to contemporary issues in treaty interpretation. These include the nature of ’evolutionary interpretation’, treaty interpretation in the particular contexts of international human rights law and international criminal law, and the problems of inconsistent interpretations in the growing body of case law relating to investment treaties.