VIENNA

CONVENTION
 Importance of law of trreaties

All kinds of inter-State transactions are conducted through treaties.

 • Various international organizations are established by means of treaties.
 • Disputes between States are brought before international courts by means of treaties.
 • The treaty is the most important source of international law.
 • Therefore, the special importance of treaties in international law does not need emphasis.
 HISTORY
After 1945, the United Nations and its specialized agencies, followed by other international
organizations, concluded an increasing number of treaties with States (e.g., agreements
on privileges and immunities or headquarter agreements) or between themselves (e.g.,
cooperation agreements) and thereby built up a fair amount of practice.
After an unsuccessful attempt at the United Nations Conference on the Law of Treaties to
reintroduce such treaties into that Convention, the Conference recommended that the
General Assembly entrust the International Law Commission with the preparation of a
separate set of draft articles (Final Act of the Conference, resolution relating to article 1 of
the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties), which the Commission submitted in 1982.
 Thereupon, in 1986, the General Assembly decided to hold a conference in Vienna to
adopt the draft articles as a convention. In view of a subject on which particularly the East
and the West had strong opposing views, the Assembly took an active part in the
preparation of the Conference. It had two main aims: to avoid possible discrepancies
between parallel provisions in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and the
new convention; and to ensure that the specific provisions concerning international
organizations would be acceptable to the greatest possible number of participants.
About Convention:
 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) was adopted on 23 May 1969nand
opened for signature on 23 May 1969.The Convention entered into force on 27 January
1980.

 The VCLT has been ratified by 116 states as of January 2018. Some countries that have
not ratified the Convention, such as the United States, recognize parts of it as a
restatement of customary law and binding upon them as such.
Signed 21 March 1986
Location Vienna
Effective not in force
Condition Ratification by 35 states
Signatories 39
Parties 44, among which 32 states
Depositary UN Secretary-General
Languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish
 ARTICLE 1
The present Convention applies to:
 (a) treaties between one or more States and one or more international organizations,
and
 (b) treaties between international organizations.
 VIENNA CONVENTION
ARTICLE 2
The definition of ‘treaty’ under Article 2 of the Vienna Convention can be distinguished in
two respects from the traditional definition. (1)It deals only with treaties concluded
between states (this is because there is a separate convention on the law of treaties to
which international organisations are parties). (2) The Convention is limited to ‘written
treaties’ only. However, it is not intended to deny the legal effect of oral agreements
under international law.
 VIENNA CONVENTION
ARTICLE 3
For the purposes of the present Convention:
(a) “treaty” means an international agreement concluded between states in
written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single
instrument or two or more related instruments and whatever its particular
designation;…
 ARTICLE 34 AND 35
Article 34
A treaty does not create either obligations or rights for a 3rd State without its consent.

Article 35
An obligation arises for a third State from a provision of a treaty if the parties to the treaty
intend the provision to be the means of establishing the obligation and the 3rd State
expressly accepts that obligation in writing.
 Vienna Convention Law of Traties
There shall be taken into account, together with
the context:
(a) any subsequent agreement between the parties regarding the interpretation of the treaty or
the application of its provisions;
(b) any subsequent practice in the application of the treaty which establishes the agreement of
the parties regarding its interpretation;
(c) any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties.

A special meaning shall be given to a term if it is established that the parties so intended.
 SCOPE OF CONVENTION
The scope of the Convention is limited. It applies only to treaties concluded between
states, so it does not cover agreements between states and international organizations or
between international organizations themselves, though if any of its rules are
independently binding on such organizations, they remain so.It does apply, however, to
treaties between states within an intergovernmental organization.Agreements between
states and international organizations, or between international organizations themselves,
will be governed by the 1986 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States
and International Organizations or Between International Organizations if it ever enters into
force. Also, in treaties between states and international organizations, the terms of the
Convention still apply between the state members.The Convention doesn’t apply to
agreements not in written form
 PARTIES TO
CONVENTION
As of January 2018, there are 116 state parties that have ratified the convention, and a further
15 states have signed but have not ratified the convention.In addition, the Republic of China
(Taiwan), which is currently only recognized by 16 UN member states, signed the Convention in
1970 prior to the United Nations General Assembly's vote to transfer China's seat to the People's
Republic of China (PRC) in 1971. The PRC subsequently acceded to the Convention.66 UN
member states have neither signed nor ratified the Convention.
 PARTIES TO CONVENTION
There are 32 state parties, where the convention is ratified: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay,
Senegal, Liberia, Gabon, Australia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Belarus, Moldova,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy,
Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Malta, Albania and Palestine.
Additionally, there are 12 international organizations that issued formal confirmations of the convention:
IAEA, ICAO, Interpol, ILO, IMO, OPCW, CTBTO Preparatory Commission, the UN, UNIDO, UPU, WHO,
WIPO.
The signatory states that have not ratified are: Ivory Coast, DR Congo, United States, Brazil, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, South Korea, Japan, Serbia, Montenegro, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Benin,
Zambia, and Malawi. Additionally, there are international organizations that have signed, but not
completed their formal confirmation procedures: CoE, FAO, ITU, UNESCO and WMO.
The unprecedented surge in international commerce during recent decades has created a
need for a uniform law on the international sale of goods. 140 The CISG, through its clarity,
practicality, and predictability seems to have met that need. It's fairly safe to predict that the
Convention will be the predominant law in force around the globe in a very short time.

Less than 2% of the GNP of the United States in 1950 concerned international trade. Today
that figure is 25 per cent, and conservative estimates place it at 40 to 50 per cent by the end
of the decade.
 REFERENCES
http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/vcltsio/vcltsio.html
https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XXIII-
3&chapter=23&lang=en
http://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/1_2_1986.pdf
Bell, K. (1996). The Sphere of Application of the Vienna Convention on Contracts for the
International Sale of Goods. Pace Int'l L. Rev., 8, 237.