The Principle of Racta Sunt Servanda in the Mechanism for Ensuring the Fulfillment of Obligations Under International Agreements

Abstract

Problem setting. The mechanism for ensuring the fulfillment of obligations under international treaties is a complex legal phenomenon that includes a number of international legal institutions (the institution of obligation, institutions related to good faith, means of ensuring the fulfillment of obligations, institutions of international judicial bodies, institution of responsibility). The main premise that contributed to the formation of the mentioned institutional mechanism is the principle «pacta sunt servanda» «agreements must be fulfilled», which concentrated in itself the idea of the binding nature of international agreements, and later the conscientiousness of their implementation. Denoting the binding nature of any legal agreement, the principle «pacta sunt servanda» is one of the main principles of contract law. However, its implementation is accompanied by a number of problems, the solution of which requires the development of an appropriate scientific basis. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The analysis of recent researches and publications shows that the issue of the principle of contractual law “pacta sunt servanda” has repeatedly attracted the attention of the scientific community. Some of its aspects were considered by both Ukrainian and foreign scientists, including: S. I. Afanasenko, D. P. Bogatchuk, O. V. Butkevich, S. V. Gonzalez Sinisterra, Z. M. Yudin and others. However, most of the research and publications available today are rather superficial in nature. Target of the research is to analyze the legal meaning and essence of the principle «pacta sunt servanda». Article’s main body. The purpose of the article is to analyze the legal meaning and essence of the principle «pacta sunt servanda». The article highlights the legal meaning and essence of the «pacta sunt servanda» principle. The author takes the position that the binding nature of international agreements is based not only on the consensual nature of contractual norms, but also on the mutual interest of the parties in the agreement. The article explains the nature of the principle «pacta sunt servanda» from the standpoint of «jus cogens», which theoretically substantiates the meaning of the principle as a prerequisite for the formation of a mechanism for ensuring the fulfillment of obligations under international treaties. Based on a number of philosophical and legal theories, the most common of which are the theory of promise, the will theory, as well as the theory of efficiency, «pacta sunt servanda», as one of the principles of contract law, is generally recognized in legal science. The study of these theories justifications allows us to ascertain the absence of historical continuity between the initial and subsequent meanings of the principle, and even the absence of a consensus view in the doctrine. Conclusions and prospects for the development. Realizing the need to observe laws, as well as observing international treaties, at the individual level, the state must realize the necessity and inevitability of multi-level interaction in the international sphere. Only the understanding that in the implementation of the common will and cooperation it is possible to achieve a solution to the international problems that are currently faced by the international community, accepting the possibility of interaction to achieve the common interest, and not to meet the current economic needs of each state separately, will allow solving many global problems of our time and leaving to a new level of understanding of law as a tool for building a new reality within the framework of the interaction of states. In this regard, the principle of «pacta sunt servanda» is gaining more and more global scope.