Also known as: international agreements · treaty · convention
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A pact between sovereign nations that establishes mutual rights and obligations under international law. Such pacts take various forms including treaties and executive agreements and bind the parties in their external relations.
After a foreign national was convicted in a state court without consular notification, the President issued a memorandum directing state courts to review the convictions under the Vienna Convention. The state court refused because Congress had never passed legislation making the convention domestically enforceable. The defendant could not obtain relief through the memorandum alone.
State officials negotiated a reciprocal tariff reduction with a neighboring country to boost local exports. The agreement was signed by the governor and submitted to the state legislature for approval. A federal court invalidated the pact because the Constitution bars states from entering treaties or compacts with foreign powers without congressional consent.
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A retailer purchased foreign-manufactured appliances on credit and granted the supplier a purchase-money security interest. The supplier claimed automatic perfection under the UCC because a treaty governed the goods. The court held that the treaty exception applied only when the treaty itself set priority rules over lien creditors.
The President entered an executive agreement allowing foreign military personnel stationed in the United States to be tried in their home courts for on-base offenses. A service member facing court-martial challenged the agreement. The court struck down the agreement because it deprived the defendant of Fifth Amendment grand-jury protections.
A bank took a security interest in an aircraft registered under a federal treaty that required notation on a central registry. The bank recorded only in the state UCC office. When a competing creditor claimed priority, the court held that the treaty preempted ordinary UCC filing and the bank’s interest was unperfected.
Congress passed a statute authorizing the President to conclude nuclear-cooperation agreements but reserved the right for either house to disapprove by resolution. When the President concluded such an agreement, one house passed a disapproval resolution. The court held the legislative veto unconstitutional because it altered the treaty-making process without bicameral passage and presentment.
Non-self-executing agreements require implementing legislation before they create enforceable rights in domestic courts. Absent such legislation, the agreement binds the United States internationally but does not alter domestic law or confer rights on individuals.
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The Constitution prohibits states from entering any treaty, alliance, or confederation with a foreign power. States may enter certain compacts only with the consent of Congress, and even then the compact cannot function as a treaty.
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No agreement, whether a treaty or executive agreement, may authorize governmental action that violates specific constitutional guarantees such as the Fifth Amendment. The treaty power does not expand Congress’s authority beyond constitutional limits.
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…and transfers that power to this Court for ultimate determination—a power which was specifically denied to federal courts by the convention that framed the Constitution.[^maj-17] Of the cases on which my Brothers WHITE and GOLDBERG rely so heavily, undoubtedly the reasoning of two of them supports their result here—as would…