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The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry
The Intent-To-Benefit: Individually Enforceable Rights Under International Treaties, Sital Kalantry
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Citizens of foreign countries are increasingly using international treaties to assert claims against Federal and state governments. As a result, U.S. courts are being asked to determine whether treaties provide litigants with individually enforceable rights. Although courts have no consistent approach to determining whether a treaty gives rise to individually enforceable rights, they often apply the textualist methodology derived from statutory interpretation. However, instead of using textual theories of statutory interpretation, I argue that courts should use intentionalist theories developed from contract interpretation in determining individually enforceable rights under treaties. Two positive arguments and one negative argument support my approach. …