Trouble with Treaties: CMIST Law Forum Debuts with John Bellinger

On Friday, March 22nd, students and faculty from across campus gathered for the first installment of Lawfully Speaking: A Forum on Law & Ethics, a new lecture series hosted by the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology (CMIST). Professor Audrey Kurth Cronin, CMIST Director, offered opening remarks to a room full of attendees from a variety of disciplines including computer science, engineering, humanities, social sciences, and business, before welcoming the president of the Carnegie Mellon Pre-Law Society, Lee Wang, class of 2024. To introduce the featured speaker, John B. Bellinger, III, Lee focused on the international lawyer’s decades-long career in service in government and in academia. 

Following a brief overview of his presentation, Who’s Afraid of International Law? Why the Senate is Approving Fewer Treaties, Mr. Bellinger provided details about treaties, explained the difference between bilateral and multilateral treaties along with their corresponding levels of negotiation difficulty, and clarified that not every agreement between the United States and another country is classified as a treaty given the Constitutional requirement for the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate. Mr. Bellinger described the stages of a treaty including negotiation, signature, delivery to and hearings in the Senate for advice and consent, and ratification by the executive. 

Mr. Bellinger emphasized the wide variety in the content of treaties and the immense benefits that individuals often take for granted, such as coordination of international air travel. Despite this importance, the Senate has been approving a diminishing number of treaties over the past 15 years. Mr. Bellinger classified two types of treaties as the most difficult to obtain Senate approval: human rights treaties and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The United States’s closest allies have joined both, and many adversaries have joined the latter. However, these important treaties have been met with resistance from conservatives in the U.S. based on ideological concerns about perceived infringement of U.S. sovereignty. The consequences of such refusal are immense according to Mr. Bellinger, "The Senate is approving far, far fewer treaties than at any point in American history,”  noting that this decline diminishes the president’s ability to enter into treaties. Belinger indicated that it also makes other countries skeptical, tying the hands of U.S. negotiators.

In the face of this disappointing reality about the current status of treaties in this country, Mr. Bellinger closed his lecture with a call to action. He encouraged the audience members to consider a career in public service, which he described as incredibly rewarding. At the conclusion of Mr. Bellinger’s talk, audience members had the opportunity to pose questions to the speaker. Mr. Bellinger’s thoughtful, informative responses to the inquiries served as a valuable complement to and elaboration of his prior discussion. Attendees left the lecture with a strengthened understanding of treaties and their importance, the reasons for the decrease in the number of treaties, and the consequences of this reduction along with an appreciation of Mr. Bellinger’s immense knowledge of and dedication to his career field. With an impressive first address, one can surely look forward to future sessions of this CMIST lecture series. Wang shared his enthusiasm stating "...not only are these presentations highly engaging and informative...they also provide students with opportunities to learn from the best of the best and even further connect one-on-one with these leaders." 

(Image 1, top right: CMIST Director Audrey Kurth Cronin; bottom left: Cronin and Wang; bottom right: Lee Wang, Carnegie Mellon Pre-Law Society President; Image 2, John B. Bellinger, III; Image 3, John B. Bellinger, III; Image 4, top left, Lawfully Speaking audience; top right and. bottom left: Bellinger; bottom right, audience with focus on student Grace Ahn; Image 5, top left, Bellinger and Cronin; top right audience; bottom left, student asking question; bottom right, l to r, Kira Monji, Cronin, Bellinger; Image 6, l to r, Mark Gardner, Rosalie Woolf, Patrick Cronin, Audrey Kurth Cronin, John B. Bellinger, III, Abby Schachter, Jacquelyn Hopkins, Elijah Dourado)