The Budapest Memorandum of 5 December 1994: Political Engagement or Legal Obligation?

• Authors: Grant Thomas
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Ukraine, upon giving up the nuclear arsenal left on its territory by the USSR, entered in 1994 into a Memorandum on Security Assurances with the United Kingdom, United States and Russian Federation (Budapest Memorandum). Since the crisis began between the Russian Federation and Ukraine in February 2014, a number of States have invoked the Budapest Memorandum. Unclear, however, is whether this instrument constituted legal obligations among its Parties or, instead, is a political declaration having no legal effect. The distinction between political instruments and legal instruments is a recurring question in inter-State relations and claims practice. The present article considers the Budapest Memorandum in light of the question of general legal interest – namely, how do we distinguish between the legal and the political instrument?

Keywords

EN

treaties; legal obligations; political commitments; use of force; international security non-proliferation and disarmament; general rule of interpretation supplementary means of interpretation; subsequent practice; treaty text; treaty context; object and purpose; Budapest Memorandum; Russian Federation; Ukraine; United States; United Kingdom

• Publisher: Instytut Nauk Prawnych PAN / Institute of Legal Studies PAN
• Journal: Polish Yearbook of International Law
• Year: 2014
• Volume: 34
• Pages: 89-114

Dates

published

2015-07-25

Contributors

author

Grant Thomas

• Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge

Identifiers

DOI

10.7420/pyil2014e