Accession
Accession in Constitutional Law
From the Comparative Constitutions Project: Accession is a process by which a country becomes a member of an international agreement or of another state. For example, all but the original fifteen colonies in the United States were granted accession into the United States.
Accession and the Treaties of the European Union
Description of Accession provided by the European Union Commission: “Accession” is the act whereby a state accepts the offer or the opportunity to become a party to a treaty already negotiated and signed by other states. It has the same legal effect as ratification. Accession usually occurs after the treaty has entered into force. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his function as depositary, has also accepted accessions to some conventions before their entry into force. The conditions under which accession may occur and the procedure involved depend on the provisions of the treaty. A treaty might provide for the accession of all other states or for a limited and defined number of states. In the absence of such a provision, accession can only occur where the negotiating states were agreed or subsequently agree on it in the case of the state in question. [Arts. 2 (1) (b) and 15, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969]
Accession
Accession, sometimes also referred to as adherence or adhesion, is the term
used to connote the method whereby a State which has not signed a treaty may subsequently
become a party to it. In terms of art. 2(1)(b) of the Vienna Convention on the Law
of Treaties of 23 May 1969 ( 1155 U.N.T.S. 331 ), accession ‘mean[s] … the international
act so named whereby a State establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound
by a treaty’. Art. 15 provides: ‘The consent of a State to be bound by a treaty is expressed
by accession when: (a) the treaty provides that such consent may be expressed by that
State by means of accession; (b) it is otherwise established that the negotiating States were
agreed that such consent may be expressed by that State by means of accession; or (c) all
the parties have subsequently agreed that such consent may be expressed by that State by
means of accession’. Art. 16 provides: ‘Unless the treaty otherwise provides, instruments
of … accession establish the consent of a State to be bound by a treaty upon: (a) their
exchange between the contracting States; (b) their deposit with the depositary; or (c) their
notifi cation to the contracting States or to the depositary, if so agreed’. See Satow ‘ s Guide
to Diplomatic Practice (5th ed.), 276–282; Aust , Modern Treaty Law and Practice (2nd
ed.), 110–113.[1]
Accession and Europe
There is an entry on accession in the European legal encyclopedia.
Description of Accession
In this reference work, accession is a sort of the International Law category.
Accession
Accession
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- Adhesion
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- Accretion
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Further Reading
- Entry “Accession” in the work “A Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union from Aachen to Zollverein”, by Rodney Leach (Profile Books; London)
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Notes
- The entry “accession” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press
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Popular Treaties Topics
- Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
- Types of Treaties
- International Treaties
- Famous Treaties
- Law of Treaties
- Numbered Treaties
Accession and the Treaties of the European Union
Description of Accession provided by the European Union Commission: “Accession” is the act whereby a state accepts the offer or the opportunity to become a party to a treaty already negotiated and signed by other states. It has the same legal effect as ratification. Accession usually occurs after the treaty has entered into force. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his function as depositary, has also accepted accessions to some conventions before their entry into force. The conditions under which accession may occur and the procedure involved depend on the provisions of the treaty. A treaty might provide for the accession of all other states or for a limited and defined number of states. In the absence of such a provision, accession can only occur where the negotiating states were agreed or subsequently agree on it in the case of the state in question. [Arts. 2 (1) (b) and 15, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969]
Resources
See Also
Popular Treaties Topics
- Treaties of the United Nations (UN)
- Types of Treaties
- International Treaties
- Famous Treaties
- Law of Treaties
- Numbered Treaties
Accession and the GATT Policy Negotiations
In relation to the GATT Policy Negotiations, Christopher Mark (1993) provided the following explanation and/or definition of Accession: The process by which countries join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT (see Section 111).1 The length of the accession process varies, depending on the conformity of the applicant country’s trade practices with GATT norms.
Individual GATT members and the applicant country also usually negotiate a “price of admission ” –tariff concessions or other obligations including the reduction of quotas and other trade-distorting policies –to compensate for benefits that have accrued over the years through multilateral GATT negotiations in which the applicant country did not participate. Accession to GATT does not automatically mean that the new member is bound by the various GATT Codes; members join these arrangements separately. The basic requirement for accession is that the applicant country’s trade policies must provide nondiscriminatory and predictable treatment for all other GATT members; in return, the country becomes part of the organization that makes world trade rules, and also enjoys by right of international obligation the benefits of these rules for its exports. An outline of the GATT accession process is provided in Appendix B.
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