Major International Agreements and Treaty-Making Procedures

International treaties establish legal obligations between states and provide frameworks for cooperation on issues such as trade, security, the environment and human rights. Their effect depends on how states express consent to be bound and, in India, whether domestic legislation is needed to implement them.

Understanding International Treaties and Agreements

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), 1969, defines a treaty as a written international agreement between states, governed by international law, whether contained in one instrument or several related instruments and whatever its designation. The VCLT applies to treaties between states; agreements involving other international actors may also be governed by international law. Treaties may be called conventions, protocols, pacts, charters, statutes, covenants or agreements. Their title alone does not determine their legal character: the parties’ intention to create obligations under international law is important. Treaties are a principal source of international law, alongside customary international law and general principles of law. Judicial decisions and scholarly writings are subsidiary means for determining rules of law.

Stages of Treaty-Making

Treaty-making commonly involves negotiation, adoption and authentication of the text, consent to be bound, and entry into force. The VCLT sets out rules relevant to these stages.

• Negotiation: State representatives, often holding full powers as plenipotentiaries, negotiate the proposed terms.
• Adoption and authentication: Participants formally adopt the text. At an international conference, adoption generally requires a two-thirds majority of states present and voting, unless they decide by the same majority to apply a different rule. Authentication establishes the text as authentic and definitive, commonly through signature, initialling or another agreed procedure.
• Consent to be bound: States may express consent through signature, ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, as provided for by the treaty. Signature alone binds a state only where the treaty or the parties’ intention gives it that effect. Ratification confirms consent after a state’s internal procedures; accession allows a state that did not sign during the original period to join later.
• Entry into force: A treaty becomes operative under its own terms, which may specify a date or require a minimum number of ratifications.
• Reservations and declarations: A reservation seeks to exclude or modify the legal effect of particular provisions for the reserving state. Reservations are not permitted where the treaty prohibits them or where they are incompatible with its object and purpose. Interpretative declarations state how a state understands a provision.

Treaty-Making in India

India’s constitutional framework gives the Union a central role in entering into treaties while providing for Parliament to legislate where domestic implementation requires it.

• Article 51: A Directive Principle calls on the State to promote international peace and security, maintain just and honourable relations, foster respect for international law and treaty obligations, and encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.
• Article 253: Parliament may make laws to implement a treaty, agreement or convention with another country or an international body, including on matters otherwise within the State List.
• Union List, Entry 14: The Seventh Schedule places the entering into of treaties and agreements with foreign countries, and their implementation, within the Union’s domain.
• Executive role: The President acts on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. The Union executive conducts treaty-making, with the Ministry of External Affairs playing a central role in negotiations and execution.
• Parliament and domestic effect: Parliament does not have to approve every treaty before the Union concludes it. Legislation is needed when implementation requires a change in domestic law or new legal rules; financial implications may also require parliamentary approval of expenditure. A self-executing treaty can operate domestically without further legislation, while a non-self-executing treaty requires domestic legislative action. Treaty obligations at the international level therefore do not, by themselves, always create enforceable domestic law.

Principles of Treaty Law

• Pacta sunt servanda: Every treaty in force binds its parties and must be performed by them in good faith. This principle supports the reliability of treaty obligations.
• Good faith: Parties must interpret and apply treaty provisions honestly and must not undermine the treaty’s object and purpose.
• Jus cogens: These peremptory norms of general international law permit no derogation. A treaty that conflicts with such a norm is void. Prohibitions of genocide, slavery and torture are examples.
• Rebus sic stantibus: A fundamental, unforeseen change of circumstances may, under strict conditions, be invoked to terminate or withdraw from a treaty. The change must have formed an essential basis of consent and radically transform obligations still to be performed; this is a narrow exception to treaty performance.

Major International Agreements

• United Nations Charter (1945): The foundational treaty of the United Nations, setting out its purposes, principles and institutional structure.
• VCLT (1969): Sets out rules on treaties between states and codifies customary international law in this field.
• UNCLOS (1982): Establishes a legal framework for the oceans, including maritime zones such as the territorial sea, contiguous zone and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
• WTO Agreements: Agreements including GATT, GATS and TRIPS govern areas of international trade relations.
• Environmental agreements: The Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) addresses conservation, sustainable use and benefit-sharing. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992), Kyoto Protocol (1997) and Paris Agreement (2015) address climate change; the Ramsar Convention (1971) concerns wetlands, and CITES (1973) regulates trade in wild animal and plant specimens.
• Human rights instruments: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) is a declaration, not a treaty, and helped lay the groundwork for later binding instruments. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both adopted in 1966, are core human rights treaties.

Key Prelims Takeaways

• The VCLT defines treaties between states as written agreements governed by international law.
• Consent may be expressed through signature, ratification, acceptance, approval or accession; the treaty determines when it enters into force.
• Pacta sunt servanda requires treaties in force to be performed in good faith.
• Article 253 empowers Parliament to enact laws implementing treaties, including on State List matters; Entry 14 of the Union List concerns treaty-making.
• India’s executive concludes treaties, while domestic legislation may be necessary to implement treaty obligations.
• Jus cogens norms cannot be derogated from; UNCLOS establishes the legal framework for maritime zones, including the EEZ.

Recent Context

On 20 October 2026, Libya’s eastern-based House of Representatives approved the 2019 Turkey–GNA maritime agreement, reversing its earlier opposition. Greece condemned the deal on 29 October; Turkey rejected the criticism. The agreement’s status has also raised questions about executive authority and the Skhirat Agreement’s cabinet-consent requirement.