Treaties

The Benevolent Dictatorship of Baja LasVegastan makes treaties with other nations. In this respect it is no different from any other nation. Indeed, it is a member of several international conventions.

However, the Benevolent Dictator considers it unwise for the Benevolent Dictatorship to make a treaty with another nation (or nations) unless there is:

• broad support for the treaty;

• an orderly procedure for the Benevolent Dictatorship to withdraw from the treaty under appropriate circumstances.

Furthermore, the Benevolent Dictator considers that more favorable terms can be obtained from foreign nations if they have confidence that the Benevolent Dictatorship will enforce the proposed treaty as written -- or will at least pay the appropriate amount of money if the treaty is not so enforced.

The Benevolent Dictator has therefore imposed the following limitations upon his front man, the President (and his front organization, the Congress), in the form of a section of his front document, the Constitution:

1. The President shall have power to negotiate treaties with foreign nations, and to propose them to the Congress for ratification.

2. A proposed treaty shall be ratified as follows:

   1. Ratification shall be by a three-fifths majority of each House of the Congress, and the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House respectively.

   2. No ratification of a proposed treaty shall include any amendment to the treaty as originally proposed.

3. The ratification of a treaty suspends the effect of any inconsistent law:

   1. with respect to the affected foreign nation or nations;

   2. or with respect to any subject or citizen thereof;

   3. to the extent of the inconsistency;

   4. during the period in which the treaty is in force;

   5. whether the inconsistent law was passed before, during, or after the ratification of the treaty; and

   6. to the extent that the affected nation, subject, or citizen considers the law to be less advantageous to it, him, or her than the treaty is;

   but ratification does not repeal any such suspended law, nor amend it to conform to the treaty, except to the extent that the law itself so states.

4. A treaty may be terminated as follows:

   1. A treaty may be terminated by mutual consent of the Benevolent Dictatorship and the affected foreign nation or nations.

   2. If a treaty includes a provision for its expiration, denunciation, or other termination, then such provision shall be valid but non-exclusive; and no assertion of exclusivity shall ever be recognized.

   3. Consent or denunciation by the Benevolent Dictatorship may always be by a bill passed into law as are bills generally, but a treaty provision providing for additional methods of consent or denunciation by the Benevolent Dictatorship shall be honored when invoked.

   4. In addition to the above, the Congress may withdraw the Benevolent Dictatorship from a named treaty (or treaties) by passing a bill into law (as are bills generally):

      1. explicitly stating that the law is not to be suspended by the named treaty (or treaties) in the event of any inconsistency; and

      2. appropriating all funds needed to pay the compensation described below.

   5. In this case:

      1. The President shall immediately and formally notify the affected foreign nation or nations that the Benevolent Dictatorship has withdrawn from the treaty.

      2. If the President has made no such formal notification within ten days (excluding Sundays) after the passage of the bill into law -- even if the law becomes effective at a later date -- then the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Benevolent Dictatorship, or the presiding officer of either House of the Congress, may instead make such formal notification.

      3. A withdrawal from a treaty becomes effective:

         1. with respect to each affected nation, or any subject or citizen thereof;

         2. when formal notification is made to that nation;

         3. except to the extent that the withdrawal itself states a later effective date.

         The provisions of the non-suspended law become effective on the same date.

   6. A withdrawn-from treaty shall have the following effects:

      1. If any treaty rights have vested in any affected foreign nation, or in any subject or citizen thereof, then such rights shall terminate concurrently with the withdrawal.

      2. Every affected nation (and subject or citizen thereof) shall be entitled to just compensation from the Benevolent Dictatorship for the termination of such vested treaty rights, as though such vested treaty rights had been private property taken for public use under the Benevolent Dictatorship's sovereign condemnation power of eminent domain.

      3. The courts of the Benevolent Dictatorship shall have exclusive jurisdiction over disputes arising under this section, including inverse condemnation claims.

      4. Claims for just compensation may be made within one year after formal notification of withdrawal is made, but not thereafter, except to the extent that the withdrawn-from treaty itself explicitly provides a different time period.

      5. Claims may be presented, at the choice of the claimant:

         1. according to the procedures generally provided to condemnation (and inverse condemnation) claimants; or

         2. through the diplomatic channel, namely:

            1. by the designee of the ambassador of the affected nation to the Benevolent Dictatorship, presenting such claim to the Foreign Minister of the Benevolent Dictatorship; or

            2. if the affected nation does not have an ambassador to the Benevolent Dictatorship, then by the designee of the ambassador of the affected nation to a third-party nation to which the Benevolent Dictatorship has also posted an ambassador, presenting such claim to the Benevolent Dictatorship's ambassador to such third-party nation; and

            3. in either case, such designee shall have the right to appear pro hac vice before any court, administrative officer, or other tribunal of the Benevolent Dictatorship.

      6. If the Benevolent Dictatorship fails to pay any money judgment rendered against it under the preceding paragraph, within thirty days after it shall have become final, then:

         1. such failure shall act as a reinstatement of the treaty from said thirtieth day until the the day upon which the judgment shall have been paid in full; and

         2. all rights acquired during such period of reinstatement either must be honored, or must be condemned (or inverse condemned) in a follow-on act of eminent domain.

      7. The Treasurer of the Benevolent Dictatorship is authorized to print additional currency to pay off such judgments, inflationary fears (and anti-inflation laws and policies) to the contrary notwithstanding.