TREATY SYSTEM
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Treaty System
A treaty refers to an agreement between two or more countries with reference to the terms of trade or peace among the countries involved. Treaties are similar to contracts in that they are made possible by willing parties and are terminated in case one breaches the treaty or fails to fulfill their expectations as stipulated in the treaty. International law plays a major role in the United States. International laws are derived from customary practice and international agreements with other countries. Countries get into an international argument through treaties. In the United States, a treaty refers to an agreement that has been negotiated and signed by the Executive and can only be enforced if it has been passed by Senate and is ratified by the President. The United States normally enters executive agreements. Executive agreements differ from treaties in that unlike treaties, they do not require the Senate’s consent or advice. The non-legal agreements are not legally binding international agreements.
International agreements such as treaties affect the domestic law in various ways. These effects may be considered self-executing or non-self executing laws. The self-executing laws do not require any action by the congress while the non-self executing laws require congressional action before approval. Treaties are non-self executing because of various reasons: they give the intention that they will not be used as domestic law without approval and enactment by the appropriate authority, the United States while consenting to a treaty, requires laws for the implementation of the treaty and the laws for the implementation are required constitutionally. The Congress may have to enact a law in order to implement a treaty in the United States.
In some instances, a treaty may be in conflict with the domestic law. The implementing legislation is superior to treaties and executive agreements since the legislation is in control domestically. A treaty may be difficult to convert into judicially accepted law even with the ratification of the president. Global treaties act as evidence of international consensus even in instances where they are not adopted universally. An example is the “UN Law of Sea Treaty” entered in 1994. The law forms a basis through which maritime issues can be solved among countries that have entered into the agreement. Non-parties may be bound by such a treaty as a Customary Law if it entails the maritime practices of many nations. Multinational treaties are the most convenient as compared to regional treaties.
Multinational treaties are signed by more that two countries and are proof of obligations and rights made by the parties of the treaty. A treaty with many parties tends to have fewer details as many countries would have numerous issues that need to be addressed. In such instances, the Customary International Law can be used as a basis of conflict resolution. A regional treaty is not binding to other countries but is binding to the parties involved. For instance, provisions in the Organization of The American States charter (OAS) require that disputes between any American States be addressed as stated in the charter. Any conflicts between States are to be addressed by the OAS before being forwarded to the UN Security Council. The OAS also investigates the “international legal dimensions of terrorism” before proceeding to the United Nations Council (Lagos, 2009). The UN Charter requires that members of an OAS come up with a solution first, “before pursuing a remedy in a more global forum” (Slomanson, 1990). This is in line with the UN Charter, which aims to establish respect and justice for the terms that are stated in any binding global or multilateral treaty.
Bibliography
Lagos, Enrique. 2009. “The Organisation of American States and the Fight against Terrorism”. International Legal Dimension of Terrorism. 345-355. http://www.peacepalacelibrary.nl/plinklet/index.php?ppn=316079529
Slomanson, William R. 1990. Fundamental perspectives on international law. St. Paul: West Pub. Co.