The doctrine of treaties providing for "objective regimes"

The object of this study is to examine the doctrine of treaties providing for "objective regimes", which postulates that there exists a certain category of treaties which, by their very nature, create legal rights and obligations for States not party to them regardless of the generally accepted principle pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt. The main purposes of the study are to determine whether or not this doctrine forms part of the modern law of treaties and, if it does, to determine its content and scope. In this way, it should be possible to clarify the extent to which treaties may produce rights and obligations. The study consists of Five chapters. Chapter I furnishes a general overview of the historical development of the doctrine of treaties providing for "objective regimes", so that the kind of treaties which allegedly fall within the scope of this doctrine may more easily be identified. Chapter II examines the rules and principles of international law concerning the question of the legal effects of treaties upon third States. It is mainly based on the rules codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969). Chapter III concentrates on the questions of whether or not the Vienna Convention recognises the special position of a category of treaties providing for "objective regimes" and, if it does not, of the extent to which the erga omnes effects claimed for this kind of treaties may possibly be explained by the mechanisms for producing third-State effects which are contemplated in that Convention. Chapter IV examines various theories which have been proposed in support of the proposition that there is a certain class of treaties which do produce, by their very nature, legal effects for third States. Finally, Chapter V studies in detail some selected treaty regimes which are frequently cited as instances of treaties providing for "objective regimes" in order to determine if the doctrine in question enjoys the approval of, or has ever been founded on, State practice. The main conclusions of this study are: that the doctrine of "objective regimes" is not in line with the contemporary theory of international law, which advocates the principles of pacta tertiis nec nocent nec prosunt and res inter alios acta as the proper rules to govern the effect of treaties on third States; that the doctrine finds little or no support in State practice; and, finally, that most of the automatic legal effects claimed for the treaties concerned may more satisfactorily be explained by the rules on the effects of treaties on third States which are contained in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties