How to Ratify a Treaty
Every year international treaties are signed in front of lights, microphones and cameras with great fanfare and much rhetoric about "improved relations" and "increased international cooperation" and "peace in our time". This gives television viewers the false impression that whatever treaty is being signed is a "done deal". The truth is, a treaty is little more than a piece of paper in the United States until the document has been ratified and signed by the president. This process can be lengthy and involved and the country has a backlog of treaties hanging in limbo, many with little hope of ever being ratified at all. Simply because a diplomat has negotiated a treaty and signed it along with another diplomat, it does not guarantee the president's signature or the approval of the U.S. Senate.
- Difficulty:
- Challenging
Instructions
Things You'll Need
- Completed treaty printed on fancy paper with copies for everybody. U.S. Senate Hundreds of senatorial aids Thousands of lobbyists and foreign diplomats U.S. president Assortment of fancy pens News media
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Ratifying a Treaty: From Limbo to Law
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Once a treaty is agreed to by diplomats representing all the parties bound by the treaty, it must be ratified by both parties if there are only two or by a quorum (more than half) of all the parties in a multilateral treaty. The first step requires the president's administration to review the treaty and make sure it is consistent with U.S. law and current foreign policy. Usually the State Department takes the lead during this process although other departments might participate if a treaty concerns their area of responsibility.
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Next, the State Department prepares all the documents for presentation to the Senate for the advice and consent process. The president and his staff review the documents and if they believe the treaty is in the best interest of the country, they present them to the Senate.
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In the United States the next step is to present the treaty to the U.S. Senate for advice and consent. The senate doesn't actually ratify the treaty, but puts in its two cents' worth and then votes whether or not to consent to the treaty's provisions. A two-thirds majority is required for the Senate to give its consent. The U.S. House of Representatives does not vote on ratification at all.
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Once in the Senate, the treaty goes first to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for review. The chairman of the committee may set up hearings to determine if there are public concerns about the treaty or if there are changes in U.S. law needed to meet the terms of the agreement. The committee chair determines the course the treaty will take, if any. A powerful committee chair can lose a treaty for years in committee. Many unpopular treaties never reach the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote. If changes in U.S. law are required, the treaty may remain in committee until the new laws or rule changes are passed before it is submitted to the full Senate for a consent vote.
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Once the treaty receives the Senate's consent, it is returned to the president to be ratified. The Senate does not actually ratify a treaty; the president does. He signs an instrument of ratification which places the treaty in force and binds the U.S. government to the terms of the treaty. Once this process has taken place and the required numbers of signatories have ratified the treaty, it goes into effect.
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Tips & Warnings
There is currently a backlog of treaties that have been negotiated, but have not been ratified. Some treaties are being withheld from the Senate by the administration, usually because the president doesn't believe the Senate will support the treaty. Some treaties have gone to the Senate, but for one reason and another no action has been taken. If a Senate is dominated by one party and the president is of the other party, treaties can be difficult to ratify.
In some cases the president will attempt to implement a treaty that the Senate has failed to act upon in order to achieve his foreign-policy goals. There is some concern that doing so circumvents the Senate's prerogative to advise and consent before a treaty becomes policy. Powerful political forces can either stall and effectively kill a treaty as happened with the Kyoto Protocols or can rush through agreements that actually force changes to our own laws and policies. The Senate may even hold a document until the administration renegotiates the terms of the treaty that the public or the senators find objectionable. The ratification process is considerably more difficult in the United States than it is in most other countries because of the advice and consent process. Woodrow Wilson lost such a battle over Senate ratification of U.S. membership in the League of Nations, an organization Wilson led the fight to create. He was not the first president to negotiate a failed treaty and our current president is not likely to complete his term without losing a ratification battle himself if history is at all a predictor.
