Part I Overview, History, Materials, and Dramatis Personae, 2 Development of Rules of Interpretation

Subject(s):

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties — Effectiveness, principle of

In drawing up the draft articles which became the Vienna Convention’s rules on treaty interpretation, the International Law Commission (ILC) focused on isolating and codifying the comparatively few general principles which appear to constitute general rules for the interpretation of treaties. The Convention’s rules do not exclude other principles compatible with these general rules, leaving open to the interpreter’s discretion recourse to the wealth of material on treaty interpretation which preceded the Convention. This material can shed light on why the Vienna rules are as they are as well as prove a useful quarry from which to extract principles, arguments, and examples to buttress or supplement particular applications of the rules. This chapter provides an overview of that material and the accompanying literature.