Modern Treaty Law and Practice

So shrewdly wrote Agatha Christie, who knew something about politics. This short chapter deals with the settlement of disputes and remedies. The subject is not specific to treaties, and has been dealt with more comprehensively in the author's Handbook of International Law and in many other books. This chapter concentrates on those matters that are particularly relevant to treaties.

Negotiations and consultations

When a treaty prescribes how disputes can be settled, it usually provides for a preliminary phase where the parties seek to settle the dispute by direct negotiations or consultations. Even if the dispute is eventually referred to arbitration or judicial settlement, it is desirable that the points at issue should be better defined by such contacts. In fact, most disputes are settled by negotiation; though it may also be true that most disputes are not so intractable that the parties have to resort to more formal methods. One should treat with caution proposals for still further general treaties on dispute settlement. There are already sufficient for those states that wish to use them. And, although formal methods of dispute settlement have an important role to play, they are usually no substitute for a carefully negotiated settlement.