Commitment between two or more countries is international agreements (these countries are bound by commitment). International agreements are governed by law of treaties, that is the party of customary international law. An agreement that is between two countries is known as “Bilateral”. An agreement that is between more than two countries is known as “multilateral”.
According to international law a treaty is termed as convention, an accord. A treaty is a legally binding agreement between states (countries). It is the content of the agreement. Therefore Biological Weapons Convention and Geneva Protocol are treaties even though both Biological Weapons Convention and Geneva Protocol do not have the word treaty in their names. Geneva protocol has banned the use of toxic gases and biological weapons in a war. It has also formed the basis for Biological and Weapon Convention. The Biological and Weapon Convention prohibits production of biological agents and toxins, development, acquisition, retention and stockpiling.
Vienna Convention on the law of treaties define treaty as an “agreement concluded between states in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation. Contractual treaties are treaties by which the parties agree to exchange pieces of territory or settle a dispute or claims that is, by which they deal with a particular kind of business. Law making treaties, which have grown tremendously in number and significance since World War 2, are instruments in which the parties formulate the principles or detailed rules for their future conduct.”
Some multilateral agreements are also referred as constituent agreements. Those agreements referred as constituent agreements are set for a specific purpose or a variety of purposes. Constituent agreements are set up by an international organization. The United Nation Charter 1945 is considered both as constituent instrument as well as multilateral treaty.
Supranational: - origin of this term is recent. This term describes the treaty structure which has been developed by six western European States: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium.
