The interpretation of treaties as living instruments

The notion of living instrument has been used by international law scholars and legal practitioners to describe a treaty that can react to the evolution of situations that the treaty itself aims at regulating. In this sense, a profound change in the legal system, as well as in the socio-political context, may produce consequences on the legal effects of the treaty, through an evolutionary interpretation of the norms therein, that is the opposite of a static interpretation linked to the meaning of the wording of the treaty at the time of the conclusion or adoption. The present research aims at identifying treaties currently in force that could be considered or have been defined as living, in order to explain the fundamental elements of the concept. The practice in the last decades has been very extensive, so the present chapter will try to describe a landscape, making references to the most important aspects of such a manifold notion. In particular, the starting point of the analysis is the theory developed by two eminent scholars, according to which a treaty can be described as a living instrument only when it has a constitutional or law-making nature, accompanied by an institutional structure potentially allowing changes.This research will try to demonstrate that both elements are important but not necessary and that there could be living treaties even outside the borders identified by those two authors.