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Abstract

Waters Treaty concerning Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which has banned the threat or application of force in international affairs. The present research explores the question of whether the unilateral act of India is a contravention of international laws of treaties and laws of prohibition of force through the extensive legal analysis of the doctrine. In this regard, the article uses qualitative analysis of the main legal sources, texts of treaties, the UN Charter and other case law, as well as secondary legal literature. Consequently, the results indicate that the decision by India to suspend the treaty, especially in the circumstances where it has been correlated with security and cross border tensions, pose a complicated legal issue on the line between plausible and acceptable termination of a treaty and an illegal request of change of force. Although, States have some rights to suspend duties under a treaty in certain situations, such activities should fit into the existing principles of international law as the basic principle of prohibition to threat force. The thorough deliberation further reveals that the approach of India provokes serious doubts with the compatibility of Article 2(4), especially when there is a clear linkage between suspensions of the treaty and the concern of national security and military opinion. Thus, this work can be added to the study of the links between the treaty and the law on the use of force in current international relations.