Self-executing

Some, but not all, treatise are self-executing, and automatically have effect as domestic law. "While treaties may comprise international commitments . . . they are not domestic law unless Congress has either enacted implementing statutes or the treaty itself conveys as intention that it be 'self-executing' and is ratified on these terms." "A treaty is equivalent to an act of the legislature, and hence self-executing, when it operates of itself without the aid of any legislative provision. When, in contrast, [treaty] stipulations are not self-executing they can only be enforced pursuant to legislation to carry them into effect."