Justification or Discovery? A New Way to a Fuller Understanding of the Law on Treaty Interpretation

For many years, Articles 31-33 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) have been considered a reFlection of the international law that governs the interpretation of treaties. This essay identifies two different ways of conceiving of this law: it can be regarded either as a tool for the justification of meaning or a tool for its discovery. The essay clarifies the relationship that exists between these different conceptions of treaty interpretation and the scholarly struggle over some of the perennial questions in the treaty interpretation debate: the nature of the law laid down in Articles 31-33 of the VCLT; the individuation of this law; and the concept of a clear meaning.