Many commentators who favor expansions in international law also favor restrictions on executive authority. What these commentators often fail to recognize is the potential for conflict between these two commitments. In this Article, I consider one example of this potential conflict: the effect under international law of signed but unratified treaties. Under contemporary treaty practice, a nation's signature of a treaty, especially a multilateral treaty, typically does not make the nation a party to the treaty. Rather, nations become parties to treaties by an act of ratification or accession, either by depositing an instrument of ratification or accession with a depositary (for multilateral treaties) or exchanging instruments of ratification (for bilateral treaties). The signing of treaties under this practice is at most an indication that the terms of the treaty are satisfactory to the executive institution in that nation charged with negotiating and signing treaties and does not constitute a promise that the nation will become a party to the treaty.
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