(11) It is to be taken for granted that the parties intend the stipulations of a treaty to have a certain effect and not to be meaningless. Therefore, such interpretation is not admissible as would make a stipulation meaningless or inefficient.
(12) All treaties must be interpreted so as to exclude fraud and so as to make their operation consistent with good faith.
(13) The rules commonly applied by the Courts as regards the interpretation and construction of Municipal Laws are in so far only applicable to the interpretation and construction of treaties, and in especial of law-making treaties, as they are general rules of jurisprudence. If, however, they are particular rules, sanctioned only by the Municipal Law or by the practice of the Courts of a particular country, they may not be applied.
(14) If a treaty is concluded in two languages, for instance, a treaty between Great Britain and France in English and French, and if there is a discrepancy between the meaning of the two different texts, each party is only bound by the text of its own language. But a party cannot claim any advantage from the text of the language of the other party.
CHAPTER III IMPORTANT GROUPS OF TREATIES
I IMPORTANT LAW-MAKING TREATIES
Important Law-making Treaties a product of the Nineteenth Century.
§ 555. Law-making treaties[913] have been concluded ever since International Law came into existence. It was not until the nineteenth century, however, that such law-making treaties existed as are of world-wide importance. Although at the Congress at Münster and Osnabrück all the then existing European Powers, with the exception of Great Britain, Russia, and Poland, were represented, the Westphalian Peace of 1648, to which France, Sweden, and the States of the German Empire were parties, and which recognised the independence of Switzerland and the Netherlands, on the one hand, and, on the other, the practical sovereignty of the then existing 355 States of the German Empire, was not of world-wide importance, in spite of the fact that it contains various law-making stipulations. And the same may be said with regard to all other treaties of peace between 1648 and 1815. The first law-making treaty of world-wide importance was the Final Act of the Vienna Congress, 1815, and the last, as yet, is the Declaration of London of 1909. But it must be particularly noted that not all of these are pure law-making treaties, since many contain other stipulations besides those which are law-making.
[913] Concerning the conception of law-making treaties, see above, §§ [18] and [492].
Final Act of the Vienna Congress.