The VCLT over the Last 50 Years: Developments in the Law of Treaties with a Special Focus on the VCLT’s Rules on Treaty Termination

Abstract

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) was adopted 1969. The 50th anniversary of the VCLT is a good moment for stock-taking. Against that background, the paper addresses how the VCLT’s rules on termination have been applied over the last 50 years: in view of the restrictive nature of the VCLT’s exit rules and the scarce practice, the paper also discusses other options to ‘flexibilize’ treaty relations, alternative to and not laid down in the Convention such as obsolescence/desuetude, termination provisions in specific treaty regimes as well as reliance on the circumstances precluding wrongfulness of the law of state responsibility which, as the paper argues, vitally complement the restrictive and abstract rules of the VCLT.