After the necessary action has been taken to bring into force the treaty or other international agreement concluded by the United States, it is published promptly in the Treaties and Other International Act Series issued by the Department. After publication in that series, the text of the treaty or other agreement is printed in the annual volume (which may consist of two or more bindings) of United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, as required by law (1 U.S.C. 112a). Treaties and other agreements concluded prior to January 1, 1950, were published in the United States Statutes at Large.

736.4-2 Registration

Article 102 of the United Nations Charter requires that every treaty and every international agreement entered into by a member of the United Nations be registered, as soon as possible, with the Secretariat and published by it. Article 83 of the Chicago Aviation Convention of 1944 requires registration of aviation agreements with the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

737 Handling Procedures

Carrying out and providing advice and assistance respecting the provisions of this chapter are the responsibility of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs, who:

a. Makes all arrangements and supervises ceremonies at Washington for the signature of treaties or other international agreements;

b. Prepares reports by the Secretary of State to the President, and messages by the President to the Senate for transmission of treaties for advice and consent to ratification;

c. Prepares instruments of ratification or adherence, instruments or notifications of acceptance or approval, and proclamations with respect to treaties or other international agreements;

d. Makes arrangements for the exchange or deposit of instruments of ratification, the deposit of instruments of adherence, the receipt or deposit of instruments or notifications of acceptance or approval, and the issuance of proclamations with respect to treaties or other international agreements;

e. Prepares instructions to foreign diplomatic missions at Washington respecting such matters;

f. Takes all measures required for the publication and registration of treaties and other international agreements to which the United States is a party. 737.1 Records and Correspondence Custody

a. The Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs compiles and maintains authoritative records regarding the negotiation, signature, transmission to the Senate, and ratification or approval, as well as the existence, status, and application, of all international agreements to which the United States is or may become a party and, so far as information is available, of agreements between other countries to which the United States is not a party. Inquiries on these subjects are addressed to, and outgoing communications cleared with, the Office of the Legal Adviser.

b. To ensure that the records regarding the matters described in this section are complete and up to date, it is important that all relevant papers be referred to the Office of the Legal Adviser.

c. The Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs is responsible for the custody of originals of bilateral agreements and certified copies of multilateral agreements pending entry into force and completion of manuscripts for publication. Following publication, such originals and certified copies are transferred to the National Archives. The Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs retains custody of signed originals of multilateral agreements for which the United States is depositary, together with relevant instruments of ratification, adherence, acceptance, or approval, as long as those agreements remain active.

737.2 Responsibility for Treaty Publications

The Office of the Legal Adviser prepares and maintains the annual publication Treaties in Force, an authoritative guide to the texts and status of treaties

and other international agreements currently in force for the United States. It also compiles and has published, in addition to the text referred to in section 736.4-1, other volumes containing texts of treaties and other agreements as required or authorized by law. Address inquiries in regard to such publications to the Office of the Legal Adviser.

The procedures for the making of multilateral agreements are in many respects the same as those for the making of bilateral agreements, e.g., the general requirements in regard to full powers, ratification, proclamation and publication. This subchapter covers those procedures which are at variance with bilateral procedures.

740.2 Negotiation

740.2-1 Function of international conference

The international conference is the device usually employed for the negotiation of multilateral agreements. The greater the number of countries involved, the greater the necessity for such a conference. If only three of four countries are involved, it may be convenient to carry on the preliminary negotiations through correspondence and have a joint meeting of plenipotentiaries to complete the negotiations and to sign the document.

740.2-2 Invitation

Traditionally, the international conference was convened by one government extending to other interested governments an invitation (acceptance usually assured beforehand) to participate, the host government bearing most, if not all, of the expense incident to the physical aspects of the conference. This is still often the practice, but increasing numbers of conferences have been convened under the auspices, and at the call, of international organizations. 740.2-3 Statement of purpose

When a call is made or invitations are extended for a conference for the formulation of a multilateral agreement, it is customary for a precise statement of purpose to accompany the call or the invitations. Sometimes, the invitation is also accompanied by a draft agreement to be used as a basis for negotiations. If the conference is called under the auspices of an international organization, the precise statement of purpose or the draft agreement may be prepared in preliminary sessions of the organization or by the secretariat of the organization.

740.2-4 Instructions to negotiators

The U.S. delegation to a conference may be comprised of one or more representatives. As a rule, the U.S. delegation is furnished written instructions by the Department prior to the conference in the form of a position paper for the U.S. delegation cleared with the Secretary or an officer specifically authorized by him and other appropriate Department officers for that purpose, under the procedures described in section 730. The Office of the Legal Adviser in all instances reviews drafts of international conventions to be considered in meetings of an international organization of which the United States is a member; when necessary, it also provides legal assistance at international conferences and meetings.

740.2-5 Final acts of conference

The "Final Act" of a conference must not contain international commitments. A Final Act must be limited to such matters as a statement or summary of the proceedings of the conference, the names of the statements that participated, the organization of the conference and the committees established, resolutions adopted, the drafts of international agreements formulated for consideration by governments concerned, and the like. If an international agreement is to be opened for signature at the close of the conference, a test thereof may be annexed to the Final Act but must not be incorporated in the body thereof; the text to be signed must be prepared and bound separately for that purpose. Where a Final Act appears to embody international commitments, and the United States representative reports the same to the Department and awaits specific instructions before taking any further action.

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a. General. The working languages of the conferences and the official languages of the conference documents are determined by the conference. A conference does not necessarily adopt all of the same languages for both purposes. It is customary and preferable for all the official languages in which the final document is prepared for signature to be designated as having equal authenticity. It is possible, however, for the conference to determine, because of specific circumstances, that in the event of dispute one of the languages is to prevail and to include in the text of the agreement a provision to that effect. Before a United States delegation concurs in any such proposal, it must request instructions from the Department.

b. English-language text.-Negotiators will use every practicable effect to assure that an English-language text is part of the authentic text of any mutilateral treaty negotiated for the United States. Where any question exists on this subject the negotiators should seek further instructions.

742 Engrossing

742.1 Language or languages used in texts

The multilateral agreement drawn up at an international conference is engrossed for signature in the official language or languages adopted by the conference. (See section 741.) The engrossing ordinarily will be done by the conference secretariat.

742.2 The principle of the alternat

The principle of the alternat (see section 732.1) does not apply in the case of a multilateral agreement, except in the remote case when an agreement between three or four governments is prepared for signature in the language of all the signatories and each of those governments is to receive a signed original of the agreement. Customarily, a multilateral agreement is prepared for signature in a single original, comprising all the official languages. That original is placed in the custody of a depositary (either a government or an international organization) which furnishes certified copies to all governments concerned.

742.2-1 Arrangement of texts

The arrangement of multilateral agreement texts varies, depending largely on the number of languages used. As in the case of bilateral agreements, however, the basic alternatives in the case of multilateral agreements are parallelcolumns, facing-pages, or "tandem," as follows:

a. Parallel columns.—If an agreement is to be signed in only two languages, the most common and preferred method of arrangement of the texts is in parallel, vertical columns. This method may be used also if only three languages are used, but the three columns are necessarily so narrow that the method has been rarely used in such cases. When there are four official languages, however, it is possible to use the parallel-column method by placing two of the language texts on a left-hand page and the other two language texts on the facing right-hand page; this method has been used often and to good advantage in various inter-American agreements with English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. If any of the languages is oriental, the parallel-column method may be inexpedient and one of the other methods may be necessary.

b. Facing pages. If an agreement is to be signed in only two languages, and circumstances make it necessary or desirable, the facing-page method may be used for engrossing the texts for signature, so that one of the language texts will be on a left-hand page and the other will be on the facing righthand page. When this method is used, it is desirable that at least the concluding part (usually beginning "In Faith Whereof," "In Witness Whereof," "Done," etc.) be engrossed in parallel columns on the page on which the first of the signatures appears so that only one set of signatures is required. If parallel columns are not feasible, the concluding paragraphs can be placed tandem-fashion (one language text after another) on the page on which the first of the signatures appears.

c. Tandem. If neither the parallel-column nor the facing-page arrangement is feasible for an agreement to be signed in two languages, and especially if signed in three or more languages, the texts may be arranged in tandem-style, i.e., one complete text following the other. This allows readily for any number

of official texts; the tandem-style precedent of the Charter of the United Nations is followed for the preparation of agreements formulated under the auspices of the United Nations. It is desirable, whenever practicable, that the concluding part of each text be placed with the concluding part of each of the other texts in parallel columns on the page on which the first of the signatures appears, although the tandem arrangement described at the end of section 742.2-lb can be used.

742.2-2 Arrangement of names and signatures

The arrangement of names and signatures, although it may seem a minor part, sometimes presents difficulties in the case of multilateral agreements. There may be variations of arrangements, depending on particular factors, but the arrangement most generally used is alphabetical according to the names of the countries concerned. An alphabetical listing, however, presents the further question, even when there are only two languages, of what language is to be used in determining the arrangement. It is a common practice to use the language of the host government or for an agreement formulated under the auspices of an international organization, to follow the precedents established by that organization. It is possible, in the event that agreement could not be reached regarding the arrangement of names of countries and signatures of plenipotentiaries, to have a drawing of lots, a device seldom used. In any event, the question is one to be determined by the conference.

742.3 Conformity of texts

It is the primary responsibility of the delegations, acting in conference, to determine the conformity of the agreement texts which are to be signed. However, the conference secretariat has a responsibility for checking the texts carefully to ensure that, when put in final form for signature, the texts are in essential conformity.

743 Full powers

In the case of a multilateral agreement drawn up at an international conference, this Government customarily (almost invariably, in the case of a treaty) issues to one or more of its representatives at the conference an instrument of full power authorizing them to sign the agreement on behalf of the United States. In some instances, issuance of the full power is deferred until it is relatively certain that the agreement formulated is to be signed for the United States. (See section 733.) Ordinarily, that full power is presented by the representatives to the secretary general of the conference upon arrival of the delegation at the conference site. It may be submitted in advance of arrival, but usually that is not necessary. When the conference has formally convened, it usually appoints a credentials committee, to which all full powers and other evidence of authorization are submitted for examination. The full powers and related documents are retained by the credentials committee or the secretary general until the close of the conference. At the close of the conference, the full powers, related documents, and the signed original of the agreement are turned over to the government or the international organization designated in the agreement as the depositary authority, to be placed in its archives.

744 Signature and sealing (see also section 734)

744.1 Signature

Most multilateral agreements are signed. Some, however, are adopted by a conference or organization after which governments become parties by adherence, accession, acceptance or some other method not requiring signature (e.g., conventions drawn up and adopted at sessions of the International Labor Organization). Procedures for the deposit of an instrument of adherence, accession, or acceptance are similar to procedures for the deposit of instruments of ratification. In some cases, accession or approval can be accomplished by formal notice through diplomatic channels.

744.2 Scals

Multilateral treaties do not usually provide for the use of seals along with the signatures of representatives. The large number of signatures would make the use of seals difficult and cumbersome.

745 Disposition of final documents of conference

745.1 Signed originals

At the close of a conference, the remaining supply of working documents (e.g., records of committee hearings, verbatim minutes, etc.) usually is placed in the custody of the host government or the organization which called the conferences for appropriate disposition. It is not proper for definitive commitments constituting part of the agreement to be embodied in such working documents. Definitive commitments must be incorporated only in a final document to be signed or adopted as an international agreement. The final documents of the conference may include a final act (see section 740.2-5) and, separately the text (s) of agreement (s). The practice of signing a final act is still followed in many cases. In any event, any agreement formulated at the conference must be engrossed as a separate document and signed or adopted. The signed or adopted originals of the final documents of the conference are turned over to the government or international organization designated in such documents as depositary. If the conference is not held under the auspices of an organization, it is customary for the host government to be designated depositary, but it might be appropriate, even in such case, to name an organization, such as the United Nations, as depositary. The decision is made by the confer

ence.

745.2 Certified copies

Upon taking custody of the signed or adopted original (s) of the final document(s), the depositary is charged with the responsibility of preparing and sending to each of the governments concerned certified copies thereof. When the conference is held abroad, the certified copies are usually sent to the mission for transmission to the Department. The United States Government, when depositary for a multilateral instrument, always furnishes at least two certified copies to each of the governments concerned. The United States Government itself requires two certified copies of each agreement, one to be retained in its archives and the other (commonly called the "deposit copy") to be embodied in a duplicate original of this Government's instrument of ratification which is transmitted to the depositary for deposit with the original of the agreement.

746 Procedure following receipt by the Department

746.1 Understandings or reservations

If it is necessary to inform other governments concerned, and perhaps obtain their consent, with respect to an understanding or reservation imposed by the Senate in its advice and consent, this Government communicates with the depositary, which then carries on the necessary correspondence with the other governments concerned.

746.2 Deposit of ratification

When the depositary for a multilateral agreement is a foreign government or an international organization, the United States instrument of ratification (or adherence, accession, acceptance, etc.) is sent by the Department to the appropriate Foreign Service mission or to the United States representative to the organization if there is a permanent representative. The mission or the representative deposits it with the depositary authority in accordance with the terms of the accompanying instruction from the Department concerning the time of deposit. When this Government is depositary for a multilateral agreement, posts are not authorized to accept instruments or ratification of foreign governments, i.e., the foreign government cannot deposit its instrument with the post. If a post is requested to transmit an instrument of ratification to the Department, it must make clear to the foreign government that the post is acting only as a transmitting agent and that the ratification cannot be considered as accepted for deposit until received and examined by the Department.

746.3 Registration (see also section 736.4–2)

It is generally recognized that the depositary for a multilateral agreement has a primary responsibility for such registration. Normally, the depositary has custody not only of the original document of agreement but also of instruments of ratification and other formal documents. Consequently the depositary is the most authoritative source of information and documentation.

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