Article 39. General rule regarding the amendment of treaties

Dörr, Oliver; Schmalenbach, Kirsten

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-19291-3_42

Oliver Dörr LL.M. (Lond.)³ &
Kirsten Schmalenbach⁴

5892 Accesses

Abstract

All treaties may be revised. Part IV of the VCLT (Arts 39–41) lays down the two common methods of modifying the content of a treaty: amendment and modification. The term amendment, used in Arts 39 and 40, denotes a formal agreement between the States Parties to alter the provisions of a treaty with respect to all of them, whereas the term modification, employed in Art 41, refers to an inter se agreement concluded between certain States Parties intended to vary provisions of a multilateral treaty in their mutual relations. This theoretically clear-cut distinction, however, proves to be difficult to handle in practice. A modification, for example, might be open to all other States Parties, and in case they accept it, the intended modification finally operates as an amendment. Therefore, the distinction between amendment and modification only refers to the initial intent of the States Parties, and not necessarily to the legal effect they have in the end.

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Notes

1.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 3.
2.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 233 para 6; Sinclair 107; RD Kearney/RE Dalton The Treaty on Treaties (1970) 64 AJIL 495, 524.
3.
Waldock [1964-I] YbILC 189 para 58; Briggs [1966-I/2] YbILC 114 para 29; Villiger Art 39 MN 5.
4.
Villiger Art 39 MN 16; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 13.
5.
Waldock [1966-I/2] YbILC 115 para 48.
6.
P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 1 et seq, 15; J Klabbers Treaties, Amendment and Revision in MPEPIL (2008) MN 2.
7.
RK Dixit Amendment or Modification of Treaties (1970) 10 IJIL 37.
8.
Dixit (n 7) 39.
9.
Waldock III 49 para 19; UN Handbook of Final Clauses (1957) UN Doc ST/LEG/6, 130–152; ME Giraud Modification et terminaison des traités collectifs (1961) 49 AnnIDI 5 et seq.
10.
McNair 534.
11.
Waldock III 47 et seq.
12.
Waldock III 49 para 19.
13.
Statements [1964-I] YbILC 147 et seq.
14.
Statement of the Chairman [1964-I] YbILC 157 para 49.
15.
Waldock [1964-I] YbILC 189.
16.
Revised Draft Articles [1966-II] YbILC 112, 119.
17.
Final Draft 182.
18.
UNCLOT I 215.
19.
UNCLOT I 207 et seq.
20.
Waldock VI 79 et seq.
21.
Waldock VI 81.
22.
UNCLOT I 205.
23.
UNCLOT II 72.
24.
Castrén [1964-I] YbILC 135 para 14; Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 2; Villiger Art 39 MN 15.
25.
Villiger Art 39 MN 15; UN Handbook of Final Clauses of Multilateral Treaties (2003) 95.
26.
P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 18, 19; G Dahm/J Delbrück/R Wolfrum Völkerrecht Vol I/3 (2nd edn 2002) 663.
27.
H Blix The Rule of Unanimity in the Revision of Treaties: A Study of the Treaties Governing Tangier (1956) 5 ICLQ 447; Giraud (n 9) 97; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 7; Aust 262.
28.
Dixit (n 7) 39; Klabbers (n 6) MN 1. The author who first recognized and showed the limitations of the former overall principle of unanimity was EC Hoyt The Unanimity Rule in the Revision of Treaties: A Re-Examination (1959) 254 et seq.
29.
See eg Arts 108 and 109 UN Charter; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 662.
30.
See eg WG Grewe Treaties, Revision in (2000) 4 EPIL 980, 981; Klabbers (n 6) MN 1; Final Clauses (n 25) 96.
31.
P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 20; Grewe (n 30) 981; Dixit (n 7) 38.
32.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 3.
33.
McNair 534; Grewe (n 30) 980; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 663; Dixit (n 7) 37.
34.
Dixit (n 7) 37.
35.
S Bastid Les traités dans la vie internationale (1985) 174; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 22; Villiger Art 39 MN 17; Sinclair 107; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 663; Aust 263.
36.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 4.
37.
Statement of Waldock UNCLOT I 204.
38.
The most comprehensive list of possible types of agreement is provided by P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 32 et seq.
39.
P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 33; Aust 264.
40.
Statement of Waldock [1966-II] YbILC 80; Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 4. All forms of amending agreement which are not concluded by a written agreement may lead to some internal problems for States Parties, since in many cases it might not be clear whether such treaty amendments require ratification by parliaments or not, see DA Koplow When Is an Amendment Not an Amendment? Modification of Arms Control Agreements without the Senate (1992) 59 UCLR 981 et seq; R Bernhardt Völkerrechtliche und verfassungsrechtliche Aspekte konkludenter Vertragsänderungen in H-W Arndt/F-L Knemeyer/D Kugelmann/W Meng/M Schweitzer (eds) Festschrift Rudolf (2001) 15 et seq.
41.
Statement of Waldock UNCLOT I 204; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 33.
42.
P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 33.
43.
Ibid; Aust 263 et seq.
44.
Statement of Waldock [1966-II] YbILC 80 para 1; Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 4; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 34.
45.
Villiger Art 39 MN 7, 14; Aust 264; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 673 et seq.
46.
See the very detailed argumentation of P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 39.
47.
The delegations of Iraq, Poland, Italy, Austria, Israel, Switzerland and Argentina explicitly regarded the rule on subsequent practice as part of customary law. The delegations of Russia, Turkey, Uruguay and Czechoslovakia denied it (UNCLOT I 210 et seq).
48.
W Karl Vertrag und spätere Praxis im Völkerrecht (1983) 292 et seq, 350 et seq; Villiger Art 39 MN 14; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 37 et seq; Giraud (n 9) 59 et seq.
49.
Statement of Waldock UNCLOT I 214.
50.
Agreement Regarding the Headquarters of UNESCO and the Privileges and Immunities of the Organization on French Territory 357 UNTS 5103.
51.
Tax Regime Governing Pensions Paid to Retired UNESCO Officials Residing in France (France v UNESCO) 25 RIAA 233 (2003). For a comment on the decision and for further examples of (successful) amendments by subsequent practice, see R Kolb La modification d’un traité par la pratique subséquente des parties (2004) 14 Schweizerische Zeitschrift für internationales und europäisches Recht 9, 16 et seq.
52.
Klabbers (n 6) MN 16; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 35; Villiger Art 39 MN 14; N Kontou The Termination and the Revision of Treaties in the Light of New Customary International Law (1994).
53.
Giraud (n 9) 58 et seq. In the law of the sea, many important conventional rules were derogated by subsequent customary law, see R Bernhardt Custom and Treaty in the Law of the Sea (1987) 205 RdC 247, 275 et seq.
54.
Villiger Art 39 MN 16.
55.
ILC Report [1964-II] YbILC 19.
56.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 38, 236 para 3; [1966-II] YbILC 177.
57.
Villiger Art 39 MN 32; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 34 et seq; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 678 et seq (the new customary rule does not amend the treaty but gives the States Parties the right to ask for an amendment).
58.
Location of Boundary Markers Between Egypt and Israel (Egypt v Israel) 20 RIAA 1, paras 209–211 (1988).
59.
Villiger Art 39 MN 33; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 38; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 673 et seq.
60.
ICJ Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v Thailand) (Merits) [1962] ICJ Rep 6, 33 et seq.
61.
ICJ 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, paras 21–22.
62.
Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 674 et seq. Further examples of treaty amendment by subsequent practice are provided by NQ Dinh/P Daillier/A Pellet Droit international public (7th edn 2002) 296 para 188.
63.
Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 41; Dahm/Delbrück/Wolfrum (n 26) 675 et seq.
64.
Final Draft, Commentary to Art 35, 232 para 4; Bastid (n 35) 174; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 23.
65.
Dixit (n 7) 39; Sinclair 107; Villiger Art 39 MN 6; Klabbers (n 6) MN 1.
66.
Final Draft, Commentary to Arts 35–36, 232 para 4.
67.
Villiger Art 39 MN 10; Klabbers (n 6) MN 2; P Sands in Corten/Klein Art 39 MN 13.
68.
Klabbers (n 6) MN 3; Aust 267.

Selected Bibliography

RK Dixit Amendment or Modification of Treaties (1970) 10 IJIL 37–50.
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WG Grewe Treaties, Revision (2000) 4 EPIL 980–985.
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J Klabbers Treaties, Amendment and Revision in MPEPIL (2008).
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European Legal Studies Institute, University of Osnabrück, 49069, Osnabrück, Germany
Professor Dr. Oliver Dörr LL.M. (Lond.)
Faculty of Law Department of Public Law/International Law, University of Salzburg, 5020, Salzburg, Austria
Professor Dr. Kirsten Schmalenbach

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

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, European Legal Studies Institute, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, 49069, Germany
Oliver Dörr
, Law Faculty, University of Salzburg, Churfürst Strasse 1, Salzburg, 5020, Austria
Kirsten Schmalenbach

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Dörr, O., Schmalenbach, K. (2012). Article 39. General rule regarding the amendment of treaties. 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_42

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19291-3_42
Published: 09 September 2011
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