International Agreements and the Republic of Lithuania

Abstract

International agreements are considered to be the main source of contemporary international law. As the number of concluded international agreements has increased, certain branches of international law, like international law of the sea, diplomatic law, consular law, law of treaties, have been codified into international agreements. Having regained its independence the Republic of Lithuania became a party to those treaties. Data of the register of international agreements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicate that in 1990 the Republic of Lithuania concluded 11 treaties with other States, accordingly in 1991 – 25, 1992 – 84, 1993 – 87, 1994 – 74, 1995 – 77, 1996 – 67, 1997 – 57, 1998 – 53, 1999 – 56, 2000 – 40, 2001 – 53.
The law of treaties, as a branch of international law, governs conclusion of treaties, their coming into effect and performance, matters of accession, amendment, invalidity, registration, publication and other questions. All these questions are analysed exhaustively in the doctrine of international law. Nevertheless, attitude of separate States towards the administrative practice of treaties is not sufficiently analysed.
For a long time the doctrine of treaties in Lithuania has been under-developed. During the previous five years a number of research projects of various levels emerged. The doctoral dissertation by Eglė Radušytė defended in 2001 in the field of social sciences, titled “The International Agreements in the Legal System of the Republic of Lithuania” requires mentioning. Andrius Nevera analyzed aspects of territorial validity of criminal law treaties of the Republic of Lithuania in his doctoral dissertation of social sciences titled “Principles of National Criminal Jurisdiction and Their Consolidation in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania”. Prof. Kūris, Prof. Vadapalas, Prof. Katuoka, Doc. Jočienė, Dr. Radušytė have contributed to the doctrine with their articles on the questions of treaty law. Nevertheless, there is still an obvious lack of works analysing in detail Lithuanian position towards treaties, the practice of treaty performance by the Republic of Lithuania and the law on treaties of the Republic of Lithuania itself. This article will focus on certain aspects of the conclusion of treaties and the status of treaties in the legal system of Lithuania that have not been analyzed yet.