The end of an international treaty

• Author: Floroiu Mihai
• Position: Lect. univ. dr. Floroiu Mihai, University of Craiova, Faculty of Law
• Pages: 170-176

THE END OF AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY

Floroiu Mihai*

Abstract

Treaties normally cease under their own arrangements. The end of a

treaty can result either from special agreements of the parties, from legal

developments outside or within the Treaty or even procedural aspects

(execution, arrival to legal term, disappearance of initial circumstances,

impossibility of performance or materia l breach of the Treaty).

Key-words : international trea ty, Vienna Convention of 1969

The initial concept and law of the international treaties was customary

for the most part of the past, but major achievements have been made when

all those disparate rules were codified by the Vienna Convention of 1969 on

the Law of International Treaties, which entered into force in January 1980.

Based on this Convention’s dispositions, we could define the treaty as an

international written agreement, whether embodied in a single instr ument or

more r elated instruments and whatever its name is, concluded between two

or more States or other subjects of law International and governed by

international law, meant for them to set obliga tions and recognize

reciprocally rights, in order to rule over their respective international

relations.

Stages of the life of a treaty depend largely on the willingness of

member States attitude towards them, but, in order for them to be as useful

for the international society as they are meant to (based on the fact that, due

to specific configuration of the international society, the treaty is the main

tool through which international law is set), there must be some specific

conditions ruling the end of those instruments.

There are two main causes for terminating a treaty. One is related to

the quality of the consent and will not make the object of the present study

and the other will be related to all other causes of termination. It will

therefore be necessary to distinguish here between situations of temporary

*Lect. univ. dr. Floroiu Mihai, University of Craiova, Faculty of Law,

mihai.floroiu@gmail.com

This pap er has been financed from the contract POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61968, strategic project

ID 61968 (2009), cofinanced from the Ruropean Social Fund, thro ugh the Operational Sector

Programme for the Development of Human Resources 2007 – 2013.