Are national courts formally bound by the VCLT's interpretive principles?

Section IV considers the doctrinal question of whether national courts are formally bound by the VCLT’s interpretive principles and the empirical question of whether they routinely apply the VCLT even in the absence of a formal legal obligation to interpret treaties in accordance with the VCLT.

What is the 'correct' interpretative approach to international law?

Debates in international law over the ‘correct’ interpretative approach mirror similar debates in domestic legal systems. Even though the VCLT’s role in treaty interpretation has been studied extensively, its use in how national courts interpret international law has received far less attention.

Do national judges influence treaty interpretation?

Section III considers national judges as members of diverse epistemic communities that influence treaty interpretation and explores the value of the VCLT’s minimum harmonisation of interpretive methods, particularly for uniform, private law-making treaties.

Are inter-linguistic concordance and intra-linguistic consistency important in translation?

By contrast, in translation within multilingual legal systems such as international institutional settings, as a rule, inter-linguistic concordance and intra-linguistic consistency are paramount in designating concepts and institutions of the shared legal framework (e.g., Prieto Ramos, 2014a, p. 314; Robertson, 2015, p. 41).