Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations

 

SECTION 3.

ENTRY INTO FORCE AND PROVISIONAL APPLICATION OF TREATIES

Article 24

Entry into force

1. A treaty enters into force in such manner and upon such date as it
may provide or as the negotiating States and negotiating organizations
or, as the case may be, the negotiating organizations may agree.

2. Failing any such provision or agreement, a treaty enters into force
as soon as consent to be bound by the treaty has been established for all
the negotiating States and negotiating organizations or, as the case may
be, all the negotiating organizations.

3. When the consent of a State or of an international organization to be
bound by a treaty is established on a date after the treaty has come into
force, the treaty enters into force for that State or that organization
on that date, unless the treaty otherwise provides.

4. The provisions of a treaty regulating the authentication of its text,
the establishment of consent to be bound by the treaty, the manner or
date of its entry into force, reservations, the functions of the
depositary and other matters arising necessarily before the entry into
force of the treaty apply from the time of the adoption of its text.

Article 25

Provisional application

1. A treaty or a part of a treaty is applied provisionally pending its
entry into force if:

(a) the treaty itself so provides; or

(b) the negotiating States and negotiating organizations or, as the
case may be, the negotiating organizations have in some other manner so
agreed.

2. Unless the treaty otherwise provides or the negotiating States and
negotiating organizations or, as the case may be, the negotiating
organizations have otherwise agreed, the provisional application of a
treaty or a part of a treaty with respect to a State or an international
organization shall be terminated if that State or that organization
notifies the States and organizations with regard to which the treaty is
being applied provisionally of its intention not to become a party to the
treaty.

PART III
OBSERVANCE, APPLICATION AND INTERPRETATION OF TREATIES

SECTION 1.
OBSERVANCE OF TREATIES

Article 26

Pacta sunt servanda

Every treaty in force is binding upon the parties to it and must be
performed by them in good faith.

Article 27

Internal law of States, rules of international organizations
and observance of treaties

1. A State party to a treaty may not invoke the provisions of its
internal law as justification for its failure to perform the treaty.

2. An international organization party to a treaty may not invoke the
rules of the organization as justification for its failure to perform the
treaty.

3. The rules contained in the preceding paragraphs are without prejudice
to article 46.

SECTION 2.

APPLICATION OF TREATIES

Article 28

Non-retroactivity of treaties

Unless a different intention appears from the treaty or is otherwise
established, its provisions do not bind a party in relation to any act or
fact which took place or any situation which ceased to exist before the
date of the entry into force of the treaty with respect to that party.

Article 29

Territorial scope of treaties

Unless a different intention appears from the treaty or is otherwise
established, a treaty between one or more States and one or more
international organizations is binding upon each State party in respect
of its entire territory.

Article 30

Application of successive treaties
relating to the same subject-matter

1. The rights and obligations of States and international organizations
parties to successive treaties relating to the same subject-matter shall
be determined in accordance with the following paragraphs.

2. When a treaty specifies that it is subject to, or that it is not to
be considered as incompatible with, an earlier or later treaty, the
provisions of that other treaty prevail.

3. When all the parties to the earlier treaty are parties also to the
later treaty but the earlier treaty is not terminated or suspended in
operation under article 59, the earlier treaty applies only to the extent
that its provisions are compatible with those of the later treaty.

4. When the parties to the later treaty do not include all the parties
to the earlier one:

(a) as between two parties, each of which is a party to both treaties,
the same rule applies as in paragraph 3;

(b) as between at party to both treaties and a party to only one of
the treaties, the treaty to which both are parties governs their mutual
rights and obligations.

5. Paragraph 4 is without prejudice to article 41, or to any question of
the termination or suspension of the operation of a treaty under article
60 or to any question of responsibility which may arise for a State or
for an international organization from the conclusion or application of a
treaty the provisions of which are incompatible with its obligations
towards a State or an organization under another treaty.

6. The preceding paragraphs are without prejudice to the fact that, in
the event of a conflict between obligations under the Charter of the
United Nations and obligations under a treaty, the obligations under the
Charter shall prevail.

 

Author: international