3 Treaty-Based Law-Making: Rules, Tools, and Techniques

Subject(s):

Climate change — Environmental disputes — Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties — Treaties, application — Treaties, entry into force — Treaties, ratification — Treaties, signature

This chapter is an overview of the basic concepts, processes and devices of treaty law. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) defines ‘treaty’ as ‘an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law’. The basic rules of treaty law are codified in the VCLT, but are considered today to be universally binding as customary international law. Moreover, international law does not provide general rules to govern treaty negotiations, but certain common practices prevail in the pre-negotiation and negotiation phases, as this chapter shows. After the treaty negotiations, the chapter examines the next step — the adoption, signature, ratification, and entry into force of treaties, before looking at how treaty developments are effected.