Diplomatic Prerequisites for Legal Techniques

Abstract

The study of Credentials and Full Powers and the role of jurists in modern economic diplomacy as a prelude to the study of legal techniques (from the act of signature to ratification, territorial application and conflict resolution) stems from the following facts:

• (i) without proper Credentials and Full Powers, a delegate cannot be allowed to participate in the negotiation and signing of an adopted agreement. But the entry into force of an agreement starts from signature or adoption of an agreement, as we shall see later in subsequent chapters; for as soon as an agreement is signed it could go into force provisionally or definitively for the signatories according to certain conditions as may be stipulated in the agreement.

• (ii) The drafting of an agreement precedes the adoption of a concluded agreement and adoption could be taken in economic international law and diplomacy as having a certain force of law, as we shall see later in subsequent chapters. It is in the light of the above that we shall first examine ‘Credentials and Full Powers’ in Section I, before ‘Drafting’ in Section II.