Law Commons^™

Resolving Treaty Conflicts, Christopher J. Borgen

Faculty Publications

The viability of international law rests largely on the viability of treaties as a source of law. In the second half of the twentieth century, the international state system was supported by the development of treaties. States focused the majority of their regime-building efforts on three sets of concerns: restraining interstate conflict, securing human rights, and managing the economic system. States used treaties as the primary tool in the construction of these international institutions and in the codification of these norms. Moreover, treaties shift issues from the political arena into a juridical, rule-based, forum.

The very success of treaties as …