Necessity and National Emergency Clauses: Sovereignty in Modern Treaty Interpretation

States invoke economic crises and security threats to justify treaty non-compliance. The most dramatic recent examples of this phenomenon include “necessity” defences in international investment law; “emergency” derogations in international human rights treaties; “exceptions” for non-conforming measures in international trade law; and doctrinal misapplications of necessity in jus ad bellum and jus in bello.

Necessity and National Emergency Clauses is the first to trace the doctrine’s geneal...