This insightful book offers a comprehensive account of the conceptual challenges facing state consent in the framework of treaty making. It highlights the relevant discursive patterns and pinpoints the increasing antagonism between treaty bodies and state parties over the ownership of treaty evolution, with the author warning of the repercussions of treaty institutionalization.
Showcasing the broad and encompassing nature of treaties, the author highlights the surrounding conflicts through chapters on the theory and concept of treaty and case studies on the flexibility of consent to be bound means, treaty withdrawal, the automatic succession doctrine and the law of reservations. The last part of the book explores how the invocation of the collective interest ideal, the institutionalization of treaties and the recurrence of formalism can endanger the legitimacy and effectiveness of treaty regimes.
