Treaties and Domestic Law

Archive Report

Status of U.N. Treaties in United States

American adherence to various United Nations covenants and conventions, projected with the intent of gaining wider respect for basic rights and fundamental freedoms, is threatened by a rising constitutional controversy in the United States. An important body of opinion holds that the U.N. multilateral treaties, if ratified by this country, would have the paradoxical effect of endangering full preservation in the United States of the civil liberties whose observance they are designed to promote in other countries. That danger is envisioned primarily in connection with the proposed covenant on human rights and a proposed convention on freedom of information, but the same legal principles are involved in the question of American adherence to the already negotiated genocide convention.

Doubts ...

locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles