This book, which is dedicated to the memory of the distinguished international lawyer Monroe Leigh, presents a consolidated treatise on how different states organize their treaty-making through national law and practice. Traditionally, scholars have studied treaties from either an international or national perspective examining treaties in terms of the international law rules embodied in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, or focusing on the treaty law of a single state. This compendium culminates a nearly thirty-year effort to derive a third, comparative perspective on the law of treaties. It analyzes the law and practice of nineteen states: Austria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Each chapter follows a common outline and contains an essay written by national expert(s) on a state’s treaty law and practice along with excerpts of relevant treaty-related legislation and documentation.
The states surveyed represent a cross-section of the international community and, as such, provide evidence of state practice generally. The first chapter illustrates how this evidence can inform international law, examining what criteria the surveyed states use to define treaties, whom they authorize to negotiate and conclude treaties, the legislative role in treaty-making and the effect of treaties within national legal systems. Taken together, these materials will serve as a lasting reference work on treaty law and practice for scholars, practitioners and government officials.