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Treaty Review Conferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Burrus M. Carnahan
Burrus M. Carnahan*
Affiliation:
USAF
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Extract

A new international forum has emerged in the last decade, with the function of reviewing the implementation of certain arms control agreements. Four agreements, negotiated between 1968 and 1978, provide for the convening of periodic conferences of states parties “to review the operation” of the treaty, including an examination of whether the purposes of the preambles and the provisions of the treaties are being realized. These conferences are completely divorced from the procedures for amendment of the treaties. Instead, they are concerned with the implementation and interpretation of the agreements. Conferences to revise multilateral agreements are rare events probably because of the natural concern that reopening the text of a treaty may cause the entire agreement to unravel. In contrast, conferences to review the operation of treaties have become a common part of the diplomatic environment. They constitute a new type of enforcement mechanism for international law, though their activities have virtually been ignored in the literature. This neglect may be due to the fact that while the agreements calling for review conferences date from the 1970s, most such conferences have only met in the 1980s.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 81 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 226 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1987

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References

1 See Art. VIII, Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, May 18, 1977, 31 UST 333, TIAS No. 9614 [hereinafter cited as Environmental Modification Convention]; Art. XII, Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, Apr. 10, 1972, 26 UST 583, TIAS No. 8062 [hereinafter cited as Convention on Biological and Toxin Weapons]; Art. VII, Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Seabed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof, Feb. 11, 1971, 23 UST 701, TIAS No. 7337 [hereinafter cited as Seabed Arms Control Treaty]; Art. VIII, para. 3, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, July 1, 1968, 21 UST 483, TIAS No. 6839, 729 UNTS 161 [hereinafter cited as Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty].

2 The first review conference on the Environmental Modification Convention met in 1984. The first review conference on the Convention on Biological and Toxin Weapons met in 1980, and the second in 1986. Review conferences on the Seabed Arms Control Treaty met in 1977 and 1983. Review conferences on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty met in 1975, 1980 and 1985.

3 Antarctic Treaty, Dec. 1, 1959, 12 UST 794, TIAS No. 4780, 402 UNTS 71. Article I prohibits “any measures of a military nature” in Antarctica, including military maneuvers, weapons tests, and the establishment of military bases and fortifications. Article V prohibits nuclear explosions in Antarctica.

4 See note 1 supra.

5 Id., Arts. IV, V and VI.

6 See 2 M. Shaker, The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 872 (1980).

7 Id. at 873.

8 Compare Articles IV, V and VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, supra note 5 and accompanying text, with the paragraphs in the Preamble on peaceful application of nuclear technology, exchange of scientific information, nuclear disarmament, and discontinuance of nuclear tests and the manufacture of nuclear weapons.

9 For the relevant treaty provisions, see note 1 supra.

10 The 1980 Final Declaration is published in Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1980 Documents on Disarmament 152, 156.

11 See GA Res. 39/65D, 39 UN GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 75, UN Doc. A/39/51 (1984). The Preparatory Committee met in Geneva from Apr. 28 to May 2, 1986, and decided that the review conference should meet from Sept. 8 to 26, 1986.

12 See, e.g., GA Res. 39/65D, supra note 11.

13 See, e.g., Art. 312, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, opened for signature Dec. 10, 1982, reprinted in United Nations, The Law of the Sea: United Nations Convention on The Law of the Sea (UN Pub. Sales No. E.83.V.5); Art. XII, para. 2(a), Antarctic Treaty, supra note 3; UN Charter art. 209, para. 2.

14 See 2 M. Shaker, supra note 6, at 877–78; compare, e.g., Rule 28, Rules of Procedure, Third Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Doc. NPT/CONF.III/41 (Sept. 9, 1985); and Rule 28, Provisional Rules of Procedure, Review Conference of the Parties to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, Doc. BWC/CONF.I/2 (Jan. 2, 1980).

15 Root, The Sanction of International Law, in International Law in the Twentieth Century 143 (L. Gross ed. 1969).

16 See note 10 supra and accompanying text.

17 Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, supra note 10, at 153.

18 Art. 31, para. 3, Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, opened for signature May 23, 1969, UNTS Regis. No. 18,232, UN Doc. A/CONF.39/27 (1969).

19 Id., Art. 32.

20 See Art. 8, para. 2, United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, opened for signature Apr. 10, 1981, UN Doc. A/CONF.95/15 (1980), reprinted in 19 ILM 1523(1980).

21 See Art. 155, Convention on the Law of the Sea, supra note 13.

22 Three United Nations agreements on outer space envisage the calling of review conferences, but none has yet been convened on these agreements. See Art. XVIII, Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, GA Res. 34/68 (Dec. 5, 1979), reprinted in 18 ILM 1434 (1979); Art. X, Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, Jan. 14, 1975, 28 UST 695, TIAS No. 8480; Art. XXVI, Convention on the International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, Mar. 29, 1972, 24 UST 2389, TIAS No. 7762.