Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties pp 89–99Cite as

Article 5. Treaties constituting international organizations and treaties adopted within an international organization

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 5884 Accesses

Abstract

The wording of Art 5 conveys the impression that the provision’s main task is to determine the scope of the VCLT ratione materiae: constituent instruments of international organizations (→ Art 2 MN 50–53) as well as treaties adopted within an organ of an international organization fall within the scope of the Convention, provided that the members of the organization are party to the Convention (but see → Art 1 MN 3). The negotiating history (→ MN 2–4), however, reveals that the function of Art 5 is primarily that of a general reservation clause: even if the Convention (lex generalis) is in principle applicable to constituent instruments of international organizations and treaties adopted within international organizations, it is the subsidiary legal regime (→ Art 1 MN 2). In the first place, the relevant rules of the respective international organization (→ Art 2 MN 50) determine issues like amendment, modification and interpretation of the constituent instrument (lex specialis), subject to the condition that the parallel provisions of the VCLT are optional treaty law (→ MN 17–19).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   219.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf the statement by the representative of Sweden UNCLOT I 45 para 34.

  2. 2.

    [1963-II] YbILC 213 (Draft Art 48): “Where a treaty is a constituent instrument of an international organization, or has been drawn up within an international organization, the application of the provision of part II, section III, shall be subject to the established rules of the organization concerned.”

  3. 3.

    Final Draft, Commentary to Art 4, 191 para 1.

  4. 4.

    Waldock IV 18.

  5. 5.

    [1965-I] YbILC 308 para 27.

  6. 6.

    See the comments by the governments of Israel, Luxembourg and the Netherlands [1966-II] YbILC 300 (lit e), 312 (Art 48), 319 (Art 48).

  7. 7.

    Final Draft, Commentary to Art 4, 191 para 2.

  8. 8.

    See the comment by the government of Luxembourg [1966-II] YbILC 312.

  9. 9.

    Final Draft, Commentary to Art 4, 191 para 2.

  10. 10.

    See UNCLOT I 42–57.

  11. 11.

    UNCLOT I 45 para 34.

  12. 12.

    See the statement by the representative of Ceylon UNCLOT I 45 para 38.

  13. 13.

    See eg the statements by the observers for the ILO and the Council of Europe UNCLOT I 36 paras 3 et seq, 47 para 12.

  14. 14.

    UNCLOT III 95, 116 para 57.

  15. 15.

    For the differentiation between different types of rules, see K Schmalenbach International Organizations or Institutions, General Aspects in MPEPIL (2008) paras 66–75.

  16. 16.

    Art 2 para 1 lit j VCLT II: “rules of the organization means, in particular, the constituent instruments, decisions and resolutions adopted in accordance with them, and established practice of the organization”.

  17. 17.

    ICJ Legality of the Use by a State of Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict (Advisory Opinion) [1996] ICJ Rep 66, para 19.

  18. 18.

    K Skubiszewski Remarks on the Interpretation of the United Nations Charter in R Bernhardt et al (eds) Festschrift Mosler (1983) 891, 892; H Kelsen Principles of International Law (1952) 172.

  19. 19.

    R Monaco Le charactère constitutionnel des actes institutifs d’organisations internationales in Mélanges offerts à Charles Rousseau (1974) 153, 154; D Simon L’interprétation judiciaire des traités des organisations internationales (1981) 157–166; T Sato Evolving Constitutions of International Organizations (1996) 230–232.

  20. 20.

    J Klabbers Constitutionalism Lite (2004) 1 International Organizations LR 31–58; K Wellens Remedies Against International Organizations (2002) 14; A Peters Global Constitutionalism Revisited (2005) 11 International Legal Theory 39, 44; for a distinction between constitutionalism and functionalism, see A Peters Compensatory Constitutionalism (2006) 19 Leiden JIL 579, 594.

  21. 21.

    Cf Bartoš [1963-I] YbILC 305 para 69; for the details of the debate within the ILC, see S Rosenne Developments in the Law of Treaties 1945–1986 (1989) 211–223.

  22. 22.

    ICJ Certain Expenses of the United Nations (Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Charter) (Advisory Opinion) [1962] ICJ Rep 151, 157: “[the Court] has recognized that the [UN] Charter is a multilateral treaty, albeit a treaty having certain special characteristics”; Use of Nuclear Weapons (n 17) paras 19, 21; Effect of Awards of Compensation Made by the UN Administrative Tribunal (Advisory Opinion) [1954] ICJ Rep 47, 57; Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970) (Advisory Opinion) [1971] ICJ Rep 16; for an excellent analysis of the ICJ’s jurisprudence, see Sato (n 19) 150–160.

  23. 23.

    ICJ Use of Nuclear Weapons (n 17) para 26; see also C Brölmann The Institutional Veil in Public International Law (2007) 121.

  24. 24.

    PJ Kuijper The Court and the Tribunal of the EC and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1998) 25 Legal Issues of European Integration 1, 10; for an ‘international legal order’: T Schilling The Autonomy of the Community Legal Order: An Analysis of Possible Foundations (1996) 37 Harvard ILJ 389, 403–404; different opinion: JH Weiler/UR Haltern The Autonomy of the Community Legal Order – Through the Looking Glass (1996) 37 Harvard ILJ 411, 420–423; see also TC Hartley International Law and the Law of the European Union – A Reassessment (2001) 72 BYIL 1, 10; M Sørensen Autonomous Legal Orders (1983) 32 ICLQ 559.

  25. 25.

    ECJ (CJ) Costa v ENEL 6/64 [1964] ECR 585.

  26. 26.

    ECJ (CJ) Kadi and Barakaat v Council and Commission C-402/05, C-415/02 P (opinion AG Poiares Maduro), 16 January 2008, para 21.

  27. 27.

    See eg the statement of the ECJ (CFI) in SP SpA et al v Commission T-27/03, T-46/03, T-58/03, T-79/03, T-80/03, T-97/03 and T-98/03 [2007] ECR II-1357, para 58: “The reference to international law, and in particular to Articles 54 and 70 of the Vienna Convention (on the Law of Treaties), fails to have regard to the sui generis nature of the Community legal order. The indivisibility of the Community legal order and the lex specialis to lex generalis relationship between the ECSC and EC Treaties mean that the consequences of the expiry of the ECSC Treaty are not governed by the rules of international law but must be assessed in the light of the provisions existing within the Community legal order.”

  28. 28.

    However, the ECJ applies the VCLT to treaties concluded by the EU (formerly EC); see in this regard the comprehensive study of F Hoffmeister The Contribution of EU Practice to International Law in M Cremona (ed) Developments in EU External Relations Law (2008) 37.

  29. 29.

    ECJ (CJ) Commission v Luxembourg and Belgium 90/63, 91/63 [1964] ECR 625; see also Hedley Lomas (Ireland) Ltd C-5/94 [1996] ECR I-2553, para 20.

  30. 30.

    ECJ (CJ) France v Commission C-327/91 [1994] ECR I-3641, para 36.

  31. 31.

    CA Fleischhauer in Simma Art 13 MN 1–5; HG Schermers/NM Blokker International Institutional Law (2003) § 1262.

  32. 32.

    The tradition can be traced back to the multilateral conferences of Münster and Osnabrück that brought forth the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, A Boyle/C Chinkin The Making of International Law (2007) 141.

  33. 33.

    Within the UN, several organs are competent to draft the treaty texts later adopted by the UNGA or traditionally on a diplomatic conference, first and foremost the ILC but also the Sixth Committee, special bodies (eg UNCITRAL) and ad hoc committees (eg the Committee on International Terrorism), for details, see CA Fleischhauer in Simma Art 13 MN 12–81; in the case of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 24 September 1996, (1996) 35 ILM 1439, the Australian government submitted the draft to the UNGA after the diplomatic conference had failed to reach consensus; the UNGA adopted the text by Res 50/245, 10 September 1996, UN Doc A/RES/50/245, for details, see Brölmann (n 23) 106.

  34. 34.

    Final Draft Commentary to Art 4, 191 para 3; Villiger Art 5 MN 6.

  35. 35.

    On the discussion whether a competence is required, see Schermers/Blokker (n 31) § 1274.

  36. 36.

    Art 13 para 1 lit a UN Charter; Art 15 Statute of the Council of Europe ETS No 1; Art 2 lit b of the 1958 IMO Convention 289 UNTS 3; Art 14 of the 1945 FAO Constitution Yearbook of the United Nations 1946–1947 part 2 ch 2 685, 693; Art 19 of the 1948 WHO Constitution 14 UNTS 185; Art IV para 4 of the 1946 UNESCO Constitution 4 UNTS 275; Art 19 of the 1919 ILO Constitution 15 UNTS 35.

  37. 37.

    F Maupain The ILO’s Standard-Setting Actions: International Legislation or Treaty Law? in V Gowlland-Debbas (ed) Multilateral Treaty-Making (2000) 129, 130.

  38. 38.

    Ibid 130.

  39. 39.

    Art 61 para 2 of the 1974 Treaty on the International Energy Agency 1040 UNTS 271; Art 7 of the 1945 Constitution of the League of Arab States 70 UNTS 248.

  40. 40.

    Art 12 of the 1947 Convention on the International Civil Aviation Organization (Chicago Convention) 15 UNTS 295.

  41. 41.

    For the definition, see Art 2 para 1 lit j VCLT II.

  42. 42.

    Cf Schermers/Blokker (n 31) § 1260.

  43. 43.

    See ICAO Assembly Resolution A31-15, Appendix B (‘Procedure for Approval of Draft Conventions on International Air Law’).

  44. 44.

    See for the drafting history MC Bassiouni Negotiating the Treaty of Rome on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court 32 Cornell ILJ (1999) 443.

  45. 45.

    Under the 2002 Treaty of the European Union (Nice), the European Council was authorized to “establish conventions, which it shall recommend to the Member States for adoption in accordance with their respective constitutional instruments” (ex Art 34 para 2 lit d 2002 TEU). Ex-Art 34 para 2 lit d, which addressed so-called ‘third pillar conventions’, was repealed by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty.

  46. 46.

    Schermers/Blokker (n 31) § 1273; see eg Agreement between the Member States of the European Union Concerning Claims Introduced by Each Member States Against Any Other Member States for Damage to Any Property Owned, Used or Operated by It or Injury or Death Suffered by Any Military or Civilian Staff of Its Services, in the Context of an EU Crisis Management Operation [2004] OJ C 116, 1.

  47. 47.

    Cf the United Kingdom’s understanding of the term “rules of international organizations” UNCLOT I 44 para 31.

  48. 48.

    Brölmann (n 23) 116.

  49. 49.

    Cf Art 108 UN Charter; Art 73 WHO Constitution (n 36); Art 13 UNESCO Constitution (n 36); Art 7 of the 1955 Articles of Agreement of the International Finance Corporation 264 UNTS 3791; Art 28 of the 1947 Convention of the World Meteorological Organization 77 UNTS 143.

  50. 50.

    See Waldock IV 67 para 9.

  51. 51.

    Final Draft, Commentary to Art 39, 236 para 1.

  52. 52.

    Cf the comment by the Observer for the Council of Europe UNCLOT I 47 para 15, mentioning Art 26 (pacta sunt servanda), Art 51 (coercion of a representative), Art 52 (coercion of a State) and Art 62 (clausula rebus sic stantibus) as ius cogens whereas he considered the bulk of the Convention’s provisions ius dispositivum.

  53. 53.

    See eg E Klein Statusverträge im Völkerrecht: Rechtsfragen territorialer Sonderregime (1980); B Simma The Antarctic Treaty as a Treaty Providing for an ‘Objective Regime’ (1986) 19 Cornell ILJ 189; for further references see → Art 34 MN 39–59.

  54. 54.

    W Graf Vitzthum in Simma Art 2 para 6 MN 15; RA Falk The Authority of the United Nations to Control Non-Members (1965) 19 Rutgers LR 591, 619.

  55. 55.

    JE Alvarez International Organizations as Law-Makers (2005) 446.

  56. 56.

    See FAO, Principles and Procedures Which Should Govern the Conventions and Agreements Concluded under Articles XIV and XV of the Constitution, Appendix D of the Report of the 9th Session of the FAO Conference (1957) as amended by FAO Res 8/91 (1991).

  57. 57.

    Rules of the ILO Conference, Part II (Standing Orders Concerning Special Subjects) Section E (Convention and Recommendation Procedure), 21 November 1919, including all amendments up to 2002; see also UNCLOT I 36 para 5.

  58. 58.

    The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (2302 UNTS 166) is so far the only convention concluded under Art 2 lit k and Art 19 WHO Constitution; for the rules of the treaty-making process, see WHO Doc A/FCTC/WG1/5, adopted on the first meeting of the Working Group on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, 3 September 1999.

  59. 59.

    J Polakiewicz Treaty Making in the Council of Europe (1999) 19 et seq.

  60. 60.

    R Sabel Procedures at International Conferences (2006) 35–36.

  61. 61.

    Among EU Member States, only France, Malta and Romania have abstained from acceding to the VCLT.

  62. 62.

    For the discussion on the limitation of Member States’ external competences, see D Scannell Trespassing on Sacred Ground: The Implied External Competence of the European Community (2002) 4 Cambridge Yearbook of European Legal Studies 343; M Cremona External Relations and External Competence: The Emergence of an Integrated Policy in P Craig/G de Búrca (eds) The Evolution of EU Law (1999) 137; T Tridimas/P Eeckhout The External Competence of the Community and the Case-Law of the Court of Justice: Principle Versus Pragmatism (1994) 14 Yearbook of European Law 143.

  63. 63.

    ECJ (CJ) Exportur C-3/91 [1992] ECR I-5529, para 8.

  64. 64.

    B de Witte Old-Fashioned Flexibility: International Agreements between Member States of the European Union in G de Búrca/J Scott (eds) Constitutional Change in the EU: From Uniformity to Flexibility? (2000) 31, 47.

Selected Bibliography

  • JE Alvarez International Organizations as Law-Makers (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  • A Boyle/C Chinkin The Making of International Law (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  • C Brölmann The Institutional Veil in Public International law, International Organizations and the Law of Treaties (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  • B de Witte Old-Fashioned Flexibility: International Agreements between Member States of the European Union in G de Búrca/J Scott (eds) Constitutional Change in the EU: From Uniformity to Flexibility? (2000) 31–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • PJ Kuijper The Court and the Tribunal of the EC and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1998) 25 Legal Issues of European Integration 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • R Monaco Le caractère constitutionnel des actes institutifs d’organisations internationales in Mélanges offerts à Charles Rousseau (1974) 153–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • J Polakiewicz Treaty Making in the Council of Europe (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • R Sabel Procedure at International Conferences (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  • T Sato Evolving Constitutions of International Organizations (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  • D Simon L’interprétation judiciaire des traités des organisations internationales (1981).

    Google Scholar 

  • K Skubiszewski Remarks on the Interpretation of the United Nations Charter in R Bernhardt et al (eds) Festschrift Mosler (1983) 891–902.

    Google Scholar 

  • M Sørensen Autonomous Legal Orders (1983) 32 ICLQ 559–576.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Legal Studies Institute, University of Osnabrück, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany

    Professor Dr. Oliver Dörr LL.M. (Lond.)

  2. Faculty of Law Department of Public Law/International Law, University of Salzburg, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Professor Dr. Kirsten Schmalenbach

Authors
  1. Professor Dr. Oliver Dörr LL.M. (Lond.)
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Professor Dr. Kirsten Schmalenbach
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oliver Dörr LL.M. (Lond.) .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , European Legal Studies Institute, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49069, Germany

    Oliver Dörr

  2. , Law Faculty, University of Salzburg, Churfürst Strasse 1, Salzburg, 5020, Austria

    Kirsten Schmalenbach

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dörr, O., Schmalenbach, K. (2012). Article 5. Treaties constituting international organizations and treaties adopted within an international organization. In: Dörr, O., Schmalenbach, K. (eds) Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19291-3_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation