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Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) was adopted in Vienna on May 23, 1969 at the United Nations Conference on the law of treaties and entered into force on January 27, 1980. This Convention applies only to treaties which are concluded by states.  This Convention applies to any treaty which is the constituent instrument of an international organization and to any treaty adopted within an international organization without prejudice to any relevant rules of the organization.

  •  Sir Ian McTaggart Sinclair, The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (2nd ed., Manchester, 1984) (available on GoogleBooks).

"The President has directed the Coast Guard to intercept vessels illegally transporting passengers from Haiti to the United States and to return those passengers to Haiti without first determining whether they may qualify as refugees."

"The text of the [United Nations refugee] Convention does not ban the 'exclusion' of aliens who have reached some indeterminate 'threshold'; it bans their 'return.'  It is well settled that a treaty must first be construed according to its 'ordinary meaning.'  Article 31.1 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1155 U.N.T.S. 331, T.S. No. 58 (1980), 8 I.L.M. 679 (1969).  The ordinary meaning of 'return' is 'to bring, send, or put (a person or thing) back to or in a former position.' . . .  That describes precisely what petitioners are doing to the Haitians.  By dispensing with ordinary meaning at the outset . . . the majority leads itself astray."

Sale v. Haitian Centers Council, Inc., 509 U.S. 155, 158 (1993); Id. at 191 (Blackmun, J.., dissenting).