Oversight of the constitutionality of international treaties

Abstract

Treaties currently represent one of the most important primary sources of public international law, as they have become the most prominent instrument for enacting binding international legal rules at both the international and domestic levels. Given this important position, the urgent need has arisen to impose oversight on the constitutionality of treaties to ensure that their content is consistent with the state's domestic legislation, foremost among which is the constitution, as it is the supreme law of the land. Therefore, no law may be enacted that contradicts its provisions. For this reason, we find that states have adopted various methods to ensure the compatibility of international treaties and agreements with domestic legislation. Some have followed a preventive (prior) review approach that precedes the ratification of the treaty law, while others have left the matter to judicial authorities to undertake subsequent judicial review. This is the case with the Iraqi legislator when he entrusted the task of monitoring the constitutionality of international treaties to the Supreme Federal Court to consider the constitutionality of the law ratifying international agreements and treaties.