Duke-Yale Roundtable Held on International Agreements

The issue of when nations can exit from their international agreements, under both domestic law and international law, has assumed new importance in the wake of the Brexit vote in the UK, the announcement by some African nations that they are contemplating leaving the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, and President Donald Trump’s effort to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change and the Iran Nuclear Deal. The Duke-Yale Foreign Relations Roundtable, held on Saturday, October 28, 2017 at Duke Law School, examined the international and domestic law surrounding exiting international agreements. Leading academics and practitioners from around the country gathered to discuss whether and to what extent the U.S. President has the authority to unilaterally suspend, terminate, or withdraw the United States from international agreements. The group discussed the international law backdrop of treaty exit, how presidential authority over treaty withdrawal should be evaluated, the proper role of the courts and Congress in policing presidential authority, and the relationship between domestic and international law in connection with U.S. actions to suspend, terminate, or withdraw from international institutions, regimes, and the agreements that comprise them.