Means of interpretation of international treaties and determinants of their significance

• Main Author: Etinski Rodoljub M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Law 2017-01-01
• Series: Zbornik Radova: Pravni Fakultet u Novom Sadu
• Subjects: international treaties; means of interpretation; significance
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0550-2179/2017/0550-21791704177E.pdf

The choice of means of interpretation and attribution appropriate weight to them may well determine the outcome of an interpretation. Articles 31 of the 32 of the VCLT leave broad discretion to an interpreter in that respect. That may turn an interpretation into a legal process of diminishing predictability and undermine legal certainty. Judicious discretion in the choice and weighing means of interpretation should not be unlimited. The nature and particular characteristics of a treaty, of a question that should be answered by interpretation, and of the means of interpretation, might have the role of determinants of the significance of means of interpretation. The correlations in a triangle of the particular characteristics of the treaty, the question and the means of interpretation, established as typical in the practice of international courts, might constitute a standard model of interpretation. An international court would be expected to explain its departure from the model.