Law Commons^™

The Breakdown Of International Treaties, Jide Nzelibe

Notre Dame Law Review

“[A] cause seldom triumphs unless somebody’s personal interest is bound up with it.” In the past few years, we have witnessed a rise in antiglobalization sentiment in which certain treaties have succumbed to domestic political backlash. But why are particular treaties susceptible to breakdown while others tend to be more resilient? Paradoxically, this Article argues that the fragility of treaties follows a peculiar logic: treaties are most vulnerable to breakdown or withdrawal if they were originally negotiated in the absence of social conflict among domestic groups. The reason is that, having been negotiated and ratified with hardly any political struggle, …