Unimplemented treaties in Canada: A comparative look at the role of domestic courts.

摘要

If international law is to matter, it has to reach individuals. This is what motivates the writing of this paper. International law is made up of different sources and treaty law is one of them. When a country ratifies a treaty, it shows its intention to be bound by that treaty. However, the process of making international treaties part of domestic law is different in every country. In Canada the process has an additional requirement, which is the implementation into domestic legislation, without this requirement courts and individuals cannot rely on treaties. Nevertheless, recent case law has showed that courts are more willing in considering unimplemented treaties for statutory interpretation. As we mentioned, the process is different in every country but there are countries that are more open to international law, we chose the Netherlands and Mexico as an example. In those countries once a treaty is ratified it becomes part of the domestic jurisdiction and courts rely on international law as much possible. This paper does not intend to criticize the Canadian process; it only intends to layout the relevant issues and make suggestions. Even though the government and the process for treaty authorization are different between nations, courts should try to rely on unimplemented treaties as an aid to statutory interpretation as much as possible.