Myths and Realities of Treaty Interpretation: Articles 27-29 of the Vienna Draft Convention on the Law of Treaties
![handle is hein.journals/vajint9 and id is 7 raw text is: THE VIRGINIA JOURNAL OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW
VOLUAE 9 DECEMBER 1968 NUMBER 1
Myths and Realities of Treaty Interpretation
Articles 27-29 of the Vienna Draft Convention
on the Law of Treaties
GEORG SCHWARZENBERGER*
In an intriguing passage in his standard work on The Law of
Treaties,1 Lord McNair observes: There is no part of the law of
treaties which the text-writer approaches with more trepidation than
the question of interpretation.
Whatever the reasons for such anxiety may be, they hardly lie in
any inherent difficulties of the subject. They may, however, well be
the result of inbred professional inhibitions which obstruct a com-
mensurate analysis and call for further examination.2
For at least three reasons, the subject is an eminently cza'ent legal
problem:
(1) The interpretation of treaties forms a section of the Draft
Convention on the Law of Treaties, which was prepared by the Inter-
national Law Commission 3 and, at the time of writing this paper, is
under consideration by the Vienna Diplomatic Conference on the Law
of Treaties.
(2) A number of important works on the interpretation of treaties
have recently been published, some of which were sparked off by the
I.L.C. Draft Rules.4
* of Gray's Inn, Barrister-at-Law; Professor of International Law in the Uni-
versity of London; Director, London Institute of World Affairs.
1. (1961), at 361 [hereinafter cited as MCNAIR], cited with approval in Ber-
lia, Contribution & 'interpr tation des traitfs, 114 Rec. des Cours (Neth.)
280, 288 (1965) and in SCHWEISFURTH, DER INTERNATIONAL VERTRAG IN DER
MODERNEN SOWJETISCHE. VOLIEtaRECHTSTHEORIE (1968), at 262.
2. See text at IV, infra.
3. For the text and commentary prepared by the International Law Commis-
sion [hereinafter cited as I.L.C.], see [1966] 2 Y.B. INT'L L. COMX'N 177
et seq., U.N. Doc. A!CN.4/189 (1966).
4. See, e.g., M. McDoUGAL, H. LASsWELL, & J. MILLER, THE INTERPRETATION OF
AGREEMENTS AND WORLD PUBLIC ORDER (1967) [hereinafter cited as Mc-
DOUGAL, ET AL.]; G. GOTTLIEB, THE LOGIC OF CHOICE (1968). See also
Falk, On Treaty Interpretation and the New Haven Approach: Achieve-
ments and Prospects, 8 VA. J. INT'L L. 323; and, for relevant earlier liter-](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vajint9&div=6&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Myths and Realities of Treaty Interpretation: Articles 27-29 of the Vienna Draft Convention on the Law of Treaties
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