Editing Treaty (section)

==Ending treaty obligations==

===Withdrawal===
Treaties are not necessarily permanently binding upon the signatory parties. As obligations in international law are traditionally viewed as arising only from the consent of states, many treaties expressly allow a state to withdraw as long as it follows certain procedures of notification ("denunciation"). For example, the [[Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs]] provides that the treaty will terminate if, as a result of denunciations, the number of parties falls below 40. Many treaties expressly forbid withdrawal. Article 56 of the [[Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties]] provides that where a treaty is silent over whether or not it can be denounced there is a rebuttable presumption that it cannot be unilaterally denounced unless:
* it can be shown that the parties intended to admit the possibility, or
* a right of withdrawal can be inferred from the terms of the treaty.
The possibility of withdrawal depends on the terms of the treaty and its ''travaux preparatory. ''It has, for example, been held that it is not possible to withdraw from the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]]. When North Korea declared its intention to do this the Secretary-General of the United Nations, acting as registrar, said that original signatories of the ICCPR had not overlooked the possibility of explicitly providing for withdrawal, but rather had deliberately intended not to provide for it. Consequently, withdrawal was not possible.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Final Clauses in Multilateral Treaties: Handbook|publisher = United Nations|year = 2003|isbn = 978-92-1-133572-9|page = 112|url = https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/publications/FC/English.pdf|access-date = 26 July 2014|archive-date = 31 March 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160331070613/https://treaties.un.org/doc/source/publications/FC/English.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref>

The [[Organization of American States]] (OAS) offers the ability of member states to withdraw from its framework by allowing states to officially inform the [[General Secretariat]] of the OAS of such intended withdrawal and being subject to a two-year long [[Sunset provision|sunset period]] in accordance with Article 143 of the body's charter.

In practice, state legislatures or other officials where so structured sometimes use their [[sovereignty]] or provisions of [[supreme law]] to declare their withdrawal from and stop following the terms of a treaty even if this violates the terms of the treaty. Other parties may accept this outcome, may consider the state to be untrustworthy in future dealings, or may retaliate with sanctions or military action. Withdrawal by one party from a bilateral treaty is typically considered to terminate the treaty. Multilateral treaties typically continue even after the withdrawal of one member, unless the terms of the treaty or mutual agreement causes its termination.

===Suspension and termination===
If a party has materially violated or breached its treaty obligations, the other parties may invoke this breach as grounds for temporarily suspending their obligations to that party under the treaty. A material breach may also be invoked as grounds for permanently terminating the treaty itself.<ref>Article 60 of the [[s: Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties|Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties]].</ref>

A treaty breach does not automatically suspend or terminate treaty relations, however. It depends on how the other parties regard the breach and how they resolve to respond to it. Sometimes treaties will provide for the seriousness of a breach to be determined by a tribunal or other independent arbiter.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gomaa|first1=Mohammed M.|title=Suspension or termination of treaties on grounds of breach|date=1997|publisher=M. Nijhoff|location=The Hague|isbn=978-90-411-0226-3|page=142}}</ref> An advantage of such an arbiter is that it prevents a party from prematurely and perhaps wrongfully suspending or terminating its own obligations due to another's an alleged material breach.

Treaties sometimes include provisions for self-termination, meaning that the treaty is automatically terminated if certain defined conditions are met. Some treaties are intended by the parties to be only temporarily binding and are set to expire on a given date. Other treaties may self-terminate if the treaty is meant to exist only under certain conditions.<ref name=":0">[[Laurence R. Helfer]], Terminating Treaties, in ''The Oxford Guide to Treaties'' 634–649 (Duncan Hollis ed., Oxford University Press, 2012)</ref>

A party may claim that a treaty should be terminated, even absent an express provision, if there has been a fundamental change in circumstances. Such a change is sufficient if unforeseen, if it undermined the "essential basis" of consent by a party if it radically transforms the extent of obligations between the parties, and if the obligations are still to be performed. A party cannot base this claim on change brought about by its own breach of the treaty. This claim also cannot be used to invalidate treaties that established or redrew political boundaries.<ref name=":0" />