Zrilic: Armed Conflicts and the Law of Treaties: Recent Developments and Reappraisal of the Doctrine in Light of the Wars in Syria and Ukraine

Jure Zrilic (City, Univ. of London – Law) has posted Armed Conflicts and the Law of Treaties: Recent Developments and Reappraisal of the Doctrine in Light of the Wars in Syria and Ukraine (Japanese Yearbook of Internaitonal Law). Here’s the abstract:

For a long time, the effect of armed conflicts on treaties has been one of the most controversial areas of international law. The International Law Commission’s (ILC) attempt to strike a balance between treaty stability, on the one hand, and realities of armed conflict which may necessitate termination or suspension of some treaties in whole or in part, on the other hand, resulted in the 2011 Draft Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties. This paper is the first to examine the recent practice of actual and possible invocations of the doctrine on the effects of armed conflicts on treaties in the context of wars in Syria and Ukraine. While one of the objectives of the ILC Draft Articles was to bring more clarity to this difficult topic, it is questionable whether this has been achieved. The paper argues that many provisions of the Draft Articles, reflecting the ILC’s desire to progressively develop international law, are still heavily contested and ambiguous, and that this has started to reflect in the case law of international tribunals and state practice. Consequently, this may deter states from engaging with the doctrine on the effects of armed conflict on treaties and the Draft Articles in the future.