1 Introduction

The law of treaties, in particular questions of treaty interpretation, has attracted considerable attention in recent years.1 This is not surprising given the flourishing of many treaty regimes since the end of the Cold War, accompanied by a stream of decisions by international judicial and quasi-judicial bodies. Such bodies, governments, and other actors are often confronted with challenges that are specific to international law. One well-known difficulty concerns the question as to how far the rules of a particular treaty must be interpreted in harmony with...