5 Responses to Breaches under the Law of Treaties

Abstract

Chapter 5 addresses unilateral treaty law responses available to treaty parties against breaches of transit obligations therein, and examines whether the exceptio non adimpleti contractus has a separate existence to the rule concerning responses to material breaches under the law of treaties. It illustrates that there may be special rules in treaties that displace treaty law responses under customary international law. The analysis distinguishes treaty law responses (and the exceptio non adimpleti contractus) from countermeasures. It demonstrates that even though unilateral responses under the law of treaties may be available to treaty parties other than the defaulting transit treaty party in response to a material breach of the treaty establishing transit of energy obligations (or non-performance may as a matter of treaty interpretation be allowed by virtue of the exceptio), these do not overlap and do not exclude countermeasures under the law of international responsibility.