6 - The Interpretation and Implementation of Peace Agreements

Summary

This chapter addresses the challenges arising from the often unclear legal status of intra-state peace agreements in establishing their binding force, applicable law and relevant principles of interpretation, and considers how drafting techniques affect the implementation of such agreements. First, it maps out the means available to participants in a peace process to confer binding status on (the substance of) an agreement under either domestic or international law, including UN Security Council endorsement, domestic entrenchment or constitutional reform. Second, the chapter examines how (predominantly international) courts and tribunals have grappled with the task of determining the law applicable to peace agreements, as well as examining trends in the principles of interpretation applied by adjudicatory bodies. Finally, it turns to the effects of drafting techniques on the implementation of agreements from the perspectives of the constitutive and instrumental approaches, including weighing the merits of constructive ambiguity.