The fundamental importance of the codification of the law of treaties by the International Law Commission and the Vienna Conference will gain increasing recognition as the rules and principles embodied in the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties are applied in the practice of states and the jurisprudence of international tribunals. Inevitably the records of this great codification will be searched and researched, by scholars as well as by legal advisers, and for a variety of reasons: What is the function of a particular rule? What r61e was it designed to play in the relations of states and in the international legal community? What does it require in the way of performance or abstention? Is it a residual rule, binding upon states if no other solution is agreed on? Why was the rule given the particular formulation found in the Vienna Convention,and what alternative formulations were rejected? Since the entry into force of the Vienna Convention will be delayed until after thirty-five states have ratified or acceded to it (Article 84), what assessment of the general acceptability of a particular provision can be gained from a study of the drafting record or from the number of affirmative or negative votes or abstentions?

In 1963 the United Nations General Assembly established the Special Committee on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations1 and instructed it to consider the following principles

Many interesting articles have already been published on the preparatory work for the United Nations Conference on the Law of Treaties, on the Conference itself, and, of course, on the Convention signed at Vienna on May 23, 1969. The American Journal of International Law has printed a number of them, among the most important being the excellent study by Ambassador Richard D. Kearney and Mr. Robert E. Dalton. The authors rightly referred to the Vienna Convention as the “Treaty on Treaties,” its object being to codify all, or nearly all, legal problems that may arise in connection with treaties, and the very definition of a “treaty,” as introduced by the convention, being much broader in scope than the traditional meaning of this term.

The General Assembly Resolution of December 17, 1970,1 has been widely acclaimed for its affirmation of the principles that