Law of treaties: What is a treaty? International Law explained

What is a treaty? International Law visualized. By Hesham Elrafei Lex Animata A treaty is a legally binding agreement, It creates rights and obligations between international legal persons, who are recognized as having treaty-making capacity. For example, The League of Nations Covenant, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the UN Charter, and the ICJ Statute, are all international law treaties. It is irrelevant how the agreement is formulated, and what name was given to it by the parties, as long as it is intended to be legally binding, by creating rights and duties. No formal requirements must be satisfied before a ’treaty’ can exist. However, the Vienna Convention applies only to written treaties. A treaty may arise from the deliberations of an international conference, negotiations, or informal governmental discussions, an ’exchange of notes’ , or an ’exchange of letters, or any other means the parties choose. In the Maritime dispute between Bahrain and Qatar, the ICJ rejected Bahrain’s claim, that the minutes of a meeting with Qatar, did not constitute a ’treaty’ in international law. The court confirmed the existence of a treaty, and that the Vienna Convention does not define, what constitutes a treaty. In addition, a treaty can create obligations or rights for one party only, as the doctrine of ’consideration’ in the UK law of contract, does not exist in international law. For example, the Agreement between the UK and China regarding Hong Kong, transferred the territory to China without any monetary rights to Britain.