The Application of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to Unilateral Declarations of Acceptance of the Jurisdiction of International Courts and Tribunals

This article aims at investigating the ways in which international courts and tribunals have applied the law of treaties to unilateral declarations of acceptance of their jurisdiction. To this end, the case-law concerning the withdrawal of unilateral declarations, their interpretation, and the admissibility of reservations to them will be examined. The essay intends to show that international courts and tribunals have in various ways and to different degrees drawn from the law of treaties in defining the legal regime applicable to unilateral declarations of acceptance of their jurisdiction. Nonetheless, it will also place emphasis on the difficulties in subsuming the solutions adopted under a unitary and coherent framework.