Article 56 (1969)

This chapter reviews Article 56 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), which deals with the denunciation of or withdrawal from a treaty containing no provision regarding termination, denunciation, or withdrawal. Article 56 sets out as a general principle that a treaty which does not contain provisions regarding its termination and which does not provide for a way to denounce or withdraw from it cannot, in principle, be subject to denunciation or withdrawal without the consent of the other parties. However, this principle allows for exceptions and the presumption of the impossibility to denounce can be reversed in two hypotheses indicated in Article 56, but not really explained in detail. Thus, the introduction of these two exceptions constitutes a safety valve and softens the rigidity of the principle of the interdiction of unilateral denunciation. In addition, the recognition of a possibility of lawful denunciation in certain cases led the drafters of the Convention to attempt to ‘discipline’ such denunciation. It is in this manner that paragraph 2 of Article 56 fixes as a general condition an advance notice period of 12 months.