9.7 Treaty-Making Power under the Constitution of Nepal and the

Nepal Treaty Act The constitutional architecture: Article 278 — the power's location: the right to conclude treaties rests in the Federation (the Government of Nepal), with the consultation duty — treaties on provincial-list subjects require consulting the concerned province; Article 279 — ratification's architecture: ratification, accession, acceptance or approval as determined by law, with two-thirds majority of the total members in both houses for the four great categories: (a) peace and friendship; (b) security and strategic alliance; (c) the boundaries of Nepal; (d) natural resources and the distribution of their uses — ordinary treaties by simple majority of the House of Representatives; and the supremacy clause: no treaty is implemented without ratification per Article 279; The practice: the Foreign Ministry's machinery; Parliament's ratification resolutions (the historic debates — Mahakali 1996; MCC 2022); the courts' conform-interpretation of statutes with ratified treaties. The Nepal Treaty Act, 2047 B.S. (1990/91): the statute governing treaty-making procedure — negotiation, signing, and the parliamentary ratification process — and the celebrated Section 9(1): where the provisions of a treaty to which Nepal is party (upon parliamentary ratification, accession, acceptance or approval) conflict with prevailing laws, the latter are invalid to the extent of the conflict, and the treaty provisions apply as Nepali law — ratified treaties prevailing over inconsistent ordinary statutes (Unit 1's monist-leaning layer inside the…