Quotes about Treaty Enforcement

William S. Cohen

Any arms agreement should be verifiable.

John Bolton

How do you deal with these countries which have happily signed all these treaties and are just as happily violating them…. They have signed solemn treaties agreeing not to do what they are doing.

Bolton had an idealistic view of the sanctity of treaties. For a more sophisticated “realpolitic” view, see {138034} .

Samuel Alito

One of the most solemn responsibilities of the president and it's set out expressly in the Constitution is that the president is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, and that means the Constitution. It means statutes. It means treaties. It means all of the laws of the United States.

John F. Kennedy

No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can, if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers, offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.

James Frank

One thing is clear: any international agreement on prevention of nuclear armaments must be backed by actual and efficient controls. No paper agreement can be sufficient since neither this or any other nation can stake its whole existence on trust into other nations' signatures. Every attempt to impede the international control agencies must be considered equivalent to denunciation of the agreement.

This was an extremely prescient statement written even before the first atomic bomb had been used in the war. When the scientists and politicians realized the implications of their success on the Manhattan Project developing the first atomic bomb, they were already meeting to come up with arms controls. It is useful to consider Dr. Franck’s last sentence in the light of the impeding done by Saddam Hussein.

Sonia Sotomayor

Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land', in most instances they're not even law.

Wolfgang Schauble

Treaties exist so that they will be adhered to. It only serves to strengthen euroskepticism when we constantly make promises and reach agreements that we do not adhere to.

William Rawle

The effect of a treaty on state constitutions and state laws cannot be questioned. Without considering whether it operates directly as a repeal of them, we are warranted in saying that an act done under a state law, in opposition to a treaty, cannot be set up as a legal bar to a proceeding founded on a treaty.

This constitutional interpretation is what has caused many conservative Americans to generally oppose treaties and trade pacts. They claim that U. S. sovereignty is whittled away whenever a treaty is signed. And a treaty can possibly not only nullify state law in some instances, but prevent a state from legislating in a given area. The number of treaties and international agreements that American Presidents have signed but Congress would not ratify is quite large.

Abraham Lincoln

Can treaties be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you.

Treaty Enforcement Quotes