Richard Gardiner, Treaty Interpretation
| Date | 01 January 2017 |
| Published date | 01 January 2017 |
| Pages | 131-133 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2017.0399 |
The publication of this second edition of Richard Gardiner's
The structure of the book is, of course, in part dictated by the relevant provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) dealing with treaty interpretation, namely: the “General Rule” in article 31, the “Supplementary Rules” in article 32, and the interpretation of treaties concluded in more than one language in article 33. These issues, together with what Gardiner terms the “Interpretative Material Generated by Treaty Making” (mainly, reservations, statements or interpretative declarations), make up the focus of the book (328 pages out of 523).
Its major achievement is that while dealing forensically and under separate headings with each element of each rule, Gardiner never loses sight of the fact that within each rule, the various components cannot be applied mechanically and separately from each other. Emblematic of this is the fact that several cases are discussed at different points in the chapter on each rule (for instance, under “subsequent agreement” and also under “other rules of international law”). The second edition continues to use a very effective device to underscore these and other key...
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