A. Rebus sic stantibus

This is known as the 'Rebus principle.'

Most ancient scripts use the rebus principle, which is, using pictures to represent words.

Applying Rank's conditions of the rebus doctrine to the situation of armed conflict yields interesting results.

Professor Richard Rank also argued that the rebus sic stantibus doctrine does not justify the American action

The rebus sic stantibus doctrine has been applied by States to armed conflict on at least three occasions.

Herbert W. Briggs, The Attorney General Invokes Rebus Sic Stantibus, 36 American Journal of International Law 89 (1942).

Oliver J. Lissitzyn, Treaties and Changed Circumstances (Rebus Sic Stantibus), 61 American Journal of International Law 895 (1967).

But, as with rebus sic stantibus, it is submitted that the impossibility doctrine must be invoked it is not automatic.

Briggs, supra note 437, at 90 91 (citing Chesney Hill, The Doctrine of Rebus Sic Stantibus in International Law, in 9 University of Missouri Studies 7 (1934)). See also Kiss, supra note 435, at 796 98 (providing extensive evidence that the rebus sic stantibus doctrine is not automatic).

Vol. 5, pp. 784, 794 96 (1959) (describing the effect of armed conflict on treaties as a part of rebus sic stantibus).

Third, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked the rebus doctrine to suspend American obligations under the International Load Line Convention of 1930.

In order to establish that the rebus sic stantibus doctrine operates automatically, they first argue that the effect of armed conflict on treaties is automatic, and then argue that because the effect of armed conflict on treaties is merely a manifestation of rebus sic stantibus, then this latter doctrine must operate automatically as well.

Like the rebus sic stantibus doctrine discussed above, the impossibility doctrine closely parallels the developing rules on the effects of armed conflict on treaties.

Vol. 36, pp. 89 96 (1942) (describing US suspension of International Load Line Convention during World War II based on rebus sic stantibus doctrine).

Herbert W. Briggs, The Attorney General Invokes Rebus Sic Stantibus, 36 American Journal of International Law 89 (1942) Rank, supra note 34, at 337 38.

The present section will confront this question by examining several related doctrines rebus sic stantibus State responsibility necessity and proportionality neutrality impossibility and the Martens Clause.

David J. Bederman, The 1871 London Declaration, Rebus Sic Stantibus, and a Primitivist View of the Law of Nations, 82 American Journal of International Law 1 (1988).

It held that armed conflict cannot bring about the extinction of treaties, but may contribute to a supervening impossibility' and perhaps to a change in the circumstances (rebus sic stantibus).

Several commentators and at least one court have argued that the effect of armed conflict on treaties is similar or even identical to the doctrine of changed circumstances (rebus sic stantibus).

Graham proceeded to consider the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus in relation to domestic hostilities in much the same way it is considered in section VI.A above in relation to international conflicts.

enter into a treaty for the sale of hydro electric power and the generating plants have since fallen into the hands of the insurgents, then, there may be grounds for invoking Rebus Sic Stantibus.

Because that case has been the subject of extensive commentary, it is discussed in more detail below to test the theory of the above commentators that rebus sic stantibus is applicable to situations of armed conflict.

The judgment is also significant because the court held that armed conflict cannot bring about the extinction of treaties, but may contribute to a supervening impossibility' and perhaps to a change in the circumstances (rebus sic stantibus) .

Amid this criticism, however, Rank did accept that the rebus doctrine could apply to armed conflict if all of the conditions of the doctrine are met, emphasizing that this doctrine could never result in automatic termination of treaties.

1970 Research paper on article 62 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties quot Clausula rebus sic stantibus Fundamental Change of Circumstances quot , done at the Hague Academy of International Law on a United Nations fellowship.

Alexandre Charles Kiss, L'extinction des traités dans la pratique française, 5 Annuaire français de droit international 784, 794 796 (1959) (discussing the effect of armed conflict on treaties in French practice as a subset of the rebus sic stantibus doctrine).

The Netherlands Yearbook of International Law reports an incident of Dutch practice in 1982 in which civil strife in Suriname affected treaties between Suriname and the Netherlands, with the Netherlands suspending all such bilateral treaties under the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus.

Briggs concluded that t he dangers inherent in a general resort by states to the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus for release from inconvenient treaty obligations could be no better illustrated than in the reasoning and methods employed by the Attorney General in this case .

An analysis of the true similarity between the effect of armed conflict on treaties and rebus sic stantibus should thus centre upon Rank's third and fourth criteria prohibiting unilateral suspension and requiring the party to submit the case to a competent international authority for review.

(b) Recognition that debtor States can invoke the rebus sic stantibus principle (fundamental change of circumstances rule) (the obligation is extinguished and the debtor is released from it when its fulfilment is impossible, very onerous or essentially different from when the debt was contracted)

Second, although many other legal doctrines are substantially similar to the effect of armed conflict on treaties, a strong argument can be made that the latter is distinguishable on the basis that it occurs automatically, whereas doctrines such as rebus sic stantibus and impossibility must be invoked.

Citing also ibid. at 1124 (Professor Garner concluded his survey of State practice stating The principle is well established that one party to a treaty does not have the right to terminate its treaty obligations unilaterally merely upon the ground that it believes that the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus is applicable to the treaty ).

If the effect of armed conflict on treaties differs from the rebus doctrine and does not include these two requirements if it is automatic rather than invokable then it is of very great legal significance, making this question one of the most important of all the questions that a study of the effect of armed conflict on treaties presents.

Benedetto Conforti and Angelo Labella, Invalidity and Termination of Treaties The Role of National Courts, 1 European Journal of International Law 44, 57 58 (1990) (discussing the effect of armed conflict as a subset of the rebus sic stantibus doctrine). See ibid., 57 n. 39 for an extensive list of cases in national courts dealing with the effect of armed conflict on treaties.

Herbert Briggs argued that the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus, if it exists at all, is clearly based juridically upon the intention of the parties at the time of the conclusion of the treaty , and that according to the terms of the Load Line Conventions, the parties' intentions were not to allow suspension due to war per se, but only as a result of notification of all other parties and subject to a one year waiting period.