Law

The Death of Treaty Supremacy: An Invisible Constitutional Change

By David Sloss
Oxford University Press December 2022

Specifications

ISBN-13
9780197651797
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication
December 2022
Format
Paperback

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This book provides the first detailed history of the Constitution's treaty supremacy rule. It describes a process of invisible constitutional change. The traditional supremacy rule provided that all treaties supersede conflicting state laws; it precluded state governments from violating U.S. treaty obligations. Before 1945, treaty supremacy and self-execution were independent doctrines. Supremacy governed the relationship between treaties and state law.

Self-execution governed the division of power over treaty implementation between Congress and the President. In 1945, the U.S. ratified the UN Charter, which obligates nations to promote human rights "for all without distinction as to race." In 1950, a California court applied the Charter's human rights provisions and the traditional treaty supremacy rule to invalidate a state law that discriminated against Japanese nationals. The implications were shocking: the decision implied that the United States had effectively abrogated Jim Crow laws throughout the South by ratifying the UN Charter. In response, conservatives mobilized support for a constitutional amendment, known as the Bricker Amendment, to abolish the treaty supremacy rule. The amendment never passed, but Bricker's supporters achieved their goals through de facto constitutional change. The de facto Bricker Amendment created a novel exception to the treaty supremacy rule for non-self-executing (NSE) treaties. The exception permits state governments to violate NSE treaties without authorization from the federal political branches.

The death of treaty supremacy has significant implications for U.S. foreign policy and for U.S. compliance with its treaty obligations.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Treaty Supremacy at the Founding
Chapter One: The Origins of Treaty Supremacy, 1776-1787
Chapter Two: State Ratification Debates
Chapter Three: Treaty Supremacy in the 1790s
Part Two: Treaty Supremacy from 1800 to 1945
Chapter Four: Foster v. Neilson
Chapter Five: Treaties and State Law
Chapter Six: Self-Execution in the Political Branches
Chapter Seven: Self-Execution in the Federal Courts
Chapter Eight: Seeds of Change
Part Three: The Human Rights Revolution
Chapter Nine: Human Rights Activism in the United States: 1946-48
Chapter Ten: The Nationalists Strike Back: 1949-51
Chapter Eleven: Fujii, Brown and Bricker: 1952-54
Chapter Twelve: Business as Usual in the Courts: 1946-65
Chapter Thirteen: The American Law Institute and the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law
Part Four: Treaty Supremacy and Constitutional Change
Chapter Fourteen: Treaty Supremacy in the 21st Century
Chapter Fifteen: Invisible Constitutional Change
List of Abbreviations Used in Endnotes
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
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