Sociology | Mercantile Law | International Law | International Relations

It is mandatory for a state which intends to be a party to a treaty to express its reservations at any of the following five levels;

• Signing (The Act of Concluding a Treaty)
• Ratifying (To give Formal Consent)
• Accepting
• Approving
• Acceding

With a minor difference of all these levels, VCLT has considered “ratification”, “acceptance”, “approval” and “accession” mean in each case the international act so named whereby a State establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound by a treaty.

PURPOSE OF ADDING PROVISIONS OF RESERVATION IN VCLT
The rationale of reservations is to reconcile the objective of a wide participation in a treaty and to preserve the integrity of a treaty. Reservation makes it possible for a state wishing to join an otherwise attractive treaty to be exempt from its one or more undesirable provisions. In this way the reserving state may become a party to a treaty.

HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF RESERVATION TO A TREATY
In the practice of the past, according to the principle of ‘Absolute Integrity’ of the multilateral treaty, reservation was valid only if all the parties to the treaty have accepted it. This rule was observed even when the League of Nations was established.

This rule was amended by the ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide-1951.’ It was held by the ICJ that, “A state making a reservation to the genocide convention [reservation was not to be objected by all parties] was to be regarded as being a party to the convention, if the reservation was compatible with the purpose of the convention.”

So, we can see how the ‘Reservation’ got evolved in the past and today when we have VCLT, a more clear approach to this topic has been perceived.