Treaty Interpretation and Treaty Process Approaches to International Environmental Law: Package Deal vs. Framework Convention

1/2 Read the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties for the technical interpretive rules (the US has not joined in the treaty, but maintains that it simply states the customary law rules), particularly its broader interpretive provisions including Articles 31-32 on plain meaning versus going behind the text, Article 30 (effect of states being party to different treaties, or treaty versions; for example, the Kyoto Protocol which has come into force, but which the US declined to adopt as amendment to the 1992 UN Convention on Climate Change) and Article 38 (treaties can create customary law to bind non-signatory states).

2/2 Compare :

a. Caminos, Hugo and Michael R. Molitor. “Progressive Development of International Law and the Package Deal”. The American Journal of International Law. October 1985, Vol. 79 No.4, pp 871-90

with

b. “Global and Regional Approaches to the Protection and Preservation of the Marine Environment” Boczek, Boleslaw Adam. Case W. Res. J. Int’l L. vol. 16 (1984) pp 39-70.

with

c. “Crafting a Winning Coalition: Negotiating a Regime to Control Global Warming”. By James K. Sebenius. From Greenhouse Warming: Negotiating a Global Regime. Washington D.C., World Resources Institute, 1991. pp. 69-98.

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