9.5 Conclusion, Reservations, Ratification and Termination

Conclusion — the life-cycle sequence to master: Full powers (Arts. 7–8): negotiators' credentials (with the customary exceptions: heads of state/government/foreign ministers ex officio); Adoption and authentication (Arts. 9–10): the text's adoption (consensus the modern practice) and authentication (initialling; signature ad referendum); Expression of consent (Arts. 11–17): by signature (definitive), exchange of instruments, ratification, acceptance/approval, or accession — per the treaty's terms; Ratification (Arts. 14–16, 18): the domestic-authorization-then-international-confirmation step: the constitutional process (Nepal's Article 279 — below) → the instrument's deposit with the depositary (a state or the UN Secretary-General) → entry into force per the treaty's terms; Article 18's interim obligation — a signatory must refrain from acts defeating the treaty's object and purpose before ratification. Reservations (Arts. 19–23): a unilateral statement, however phrased, purporting to exclude or modify the legal effect of certain provisions in their application to that state — the price of universality. The rules: not permitted if prohibited by the treaty, incompatible with its object and purpose, or expressly excluded (Art. 19); other states' acceptance/ objection (Arts. 20–21 — the human-rights covenants' "object and purpose" objections the classic battleground); the Genocide Convention Advisory Opinion (ICJ, 1951) legitimating the reservations practice; Article 21's calculus of effects (the reserving state bound minus the reservation; objecting states in modified relations). Termination, withdrawal, suspension (Arts. 54–64): by the treaty's terms…