The influence of jurisprudence of international treaty bodies on the interpretation of international treaties

Abstract

The article analyzes the activities of international treaty bodies and the grounds for the emergence of powers in them regarding the interpretation of international treaties. There are legal and factual grounds for the emergence of jurisprudence practice in international control bodies. As for legal grounds, the only such indisputable basis is an international treaty by which the participating states grant the international body the appropriate powers.
The actual reasons for the emergence of jurisprudence may be the vagueness of the international treaty itself, the need for the international body to explain in the relevant evaluation report the state’s compliance with its international legal obligations under the international treaty, the reason for the passage of time to give the obligations the character of «living law», as well as factors globalization and regionalization.
The question of the use of fictitious or immanent powers is investigated. In the case when an international body departs from a general understanding of its contractual powers, then one speaks of immanent powers. Otherwise, the international body tries not to go beyond the contractual norm, in this case we are talking about fictitious powers. Imaginary powers are considered in a «broad» and «narrow» sense. At the same time, it is difficult to distinguish between implied powers in the «broad» sense and immanent powers. In the science of international law, the attitude towards immanent and imaginary powers of international bodies is not the same. The international legal significance of the jurisprudence of international treaty bodies, which do not have the contractual authority to authentically interpret an international treaty, is related to the customary legal fulfillment of the contractual obligations of states.
On the basis of the conducted research, conclusions were made regarding the solution to the problems of implementing the powers of treaty bodies and the influence of jurisprudence on their interpretation of international treaties, which should take place in the plane of researching the imaginary or immanent powers of these bodies themselves.