Peace Agreements: Their Nature and Legal Status

Abstract

The article examines the legal status of peace agreements, and whether and when they are framed as treaties, international agreements, domestic constitutions or legislation, or political pacts. The article explore the relationship between a peace agreement's legalization and compliance with the peace agreement. Conventional understandings of how legalization affects compliance are argued not to apply. The article makes a case for understanding peace agreements as exhibiting a distinct 'law of the peacemaker' or lex pacificatoria, which operates as a transnational form of law similar to the lex mercatoria.

Keywords: peace agreements, international law, compliance, international agreements, treaties, legalization