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41 UCLA L. Rev. 953 (1993-1994)
Revivalist Canons and Treaty Interpretation

handle is hein.journals/uclalr41 and id is 977 raw text is: REVIVALIST CANONS AND TREATY INTERPRETATION David J. Bederman* INTRODUCTION ................................................ 954 I. A PRIMER ON U.S. TREATY INTERPRETATION ....................... 955 A. Allocation of Constitutional Power to Interpret Treaties ............ 956 1. Judicial Deference to Senate Interpretations of Treaties ......... 957 2. Judicial Deference to Executive Interpretation ................ 960 B. Basic Methods of Treaty Construction ......................... 963 1. Canon One: Begin interpretation with the treaty's text ......... 964 2. Canon Two: Treaties should be construed liberally and in good faith ............................................... 966 3. Canon Three: Treaty interpretation should effectuate the intent of the parties ............................................. 970 C. Reconciling Vienna Convention Methods of Treaty Interpretation .... 972 II. TREATY INTERPRETATION BY THE REHNQUIST COURT .................. 975 A. Breaking from the Treaty Text ............................... 976 B. Choosing Among Extratextual Materials for Interpretation .......... 991 1. Use of travaux pr4paratoires .............................. 992 2. Legislative history for treaties ........................... 997 3. Evidence of subsequent practice in interpreting treaties ......... 1002 4. Mixing and matching extratextual materials ................. 1006 C. Do the Views of Our Treaty Partners Matter? ................... 1007 D. Deference to Executive Branch Constructions of Treaties .......... 1015 III. THE STATUTORY ANALOGY TO TREATY INTERPRETATION .............. 1019 A. New Theories of Statutory Construction ....................... 1019 B. Confounding Treaties with Statutes .......................... 1022 1. Plain Meanings and Thresholds of Ambiguity ................ 1024 2. W hose Intentionalism? ................................ 1026 IV. OLD CANONS AND NEW WAYS TO READ TREATIES ................... 1028 CONCLUSION ................................................. 1033 * Assistant Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law. I am grateful for the comments I received on earlier drafts of this article. Particular thanks go to Harold Berman, Maria Frankowska, Rick Kirgis, John Noyes, Jordan Paust, Al Rubin, Charles Shanor, Barbara Stark, Eric Stein, and Joel Trachtman. I also acknowledge the valuable input of the Emory University School of Law Faculty Colloquium, as well as the generous financial support of the Law School's summer research stipends. Lastly, I give special thanks for the research assistance provided by Todd Hennings (Emory '93) and Christine Beth Ledvinka (Emory '94). All errors and omissions are mine.

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