Treaty Power and the Constitution
Overview of Treaty Implementation
In providing that the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur,” the treaty clause of the Constitution (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2) furnishes little textual guidance concerning the proper extent of the power so granted. Perhaps the most familiar judicial statement regarding the scope of this clause is that opined by the Supreme Court in Geofroy v. Riggs (1890): The treaty power, as expressed in the Constitution, is in terms unlimited except by those restraints which are found in that instrument against…
