Open Treaties

Open Treaties

 

bilateral and multilateral international agreements that permit states not initially parties to them to become signatories. As a rule open treaties are general compacts of interest to all or many peoples and countries. Examples are the UN Charter, the charter of COMECON, the Moscow Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of 1963, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and the Seabed Treaty of 1971.

There are two ways by which a state may become a party to an open treaty already acceded to by other countries. First, the state may declare its recognition of the treaty, to which it becomes a party on an equal basis with the treaty’s signatories. Second, the state may directly ratify the text of the treaty and proclaim itself bound by the treaty’s provisions.