Treaties as "Part of Our Law"

In this Article, Professor Young discusses the implementation of treaties as part of domestic law in the United States. He argues that the Supreme Court’s approach to treaty interpretation should be no different than the Court’s approach to interpreting statutes and other forms of domestic law.

Professor Young notes that The Paquete Habana and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution clearly indicate that treaties are to be considered “part of our law.” Internationalists interpret The Paquete Habana to require courts to presume that treaties are self-executing and defer to supranational bodies’ interpretation of treaties. However, Young argues that recent cases interpreting the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations cast doubt on the internationalist position. He concludes that treaties, like ordinary forms of domestic federal law, are often not self-executing and should be interpreted by the Supreme Court based on domestic common law norms rather than international concerns.