Misgivings about123 Agreement

The nuclear deal between India and the USA as embodied in the so-called 123 Agreement is going to be signed soon between the two countries.

There have been a lot of misgivings in India about the deal. It is said by many politicians and analysts that the so-called 123 Agreement will be diluted by the Hyde Act or any other American law. This fear is baseless. Under customary international law and practice, any treaty between two sovereign countries is not subject to any domestic law of either country. The Vienna Convention of 1969 on the Laws of Treaty which has entered into force on 27 January 1980 also does not contain any allusion to the domestic laws of the signatory countries. Both India and the USA are signatories to the Convention.

However, should any dispute arise in future about the interpretation of a treaty of a part thereof, the dispute can be sorted out politically between the two countries. If the two countries are unable to sort it out, they can go to the International Court of Justice at the Hague or to a mutually agreed arbitrator. But in any of these processes, domestic laws of either country are irrelevant.