1,303 articles
Mandatory Palestine (פלשתינה (א״י))
Mandatory Palestine (פלשתינה (א״י)): the League of Nations Class A mandate territory administered by Britain from 1920 until 14 May 1948, incorporating the Balfour Declaration's Jewish national home pledge, ending with Israeli independence.
Manley Ottmer Hudson
Manley Ottmer Hudson was an American international law scholar at Harvard who served as a judge on the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1936 to 1946.
Maritime boundary
Maritime boundary: the agreed or adjudicated line separating overlapping coastal-state jurisdiction over territorial seas, EEZs, and continental shelves, governed by UNCLOS Articles 74 and 83 and the three-stage equidistance methodology.
Maritime boundary treaties of the Persian Gulf
The maritime boundary treaties of the Persian Gulf are agreements that divide the continental shelf among eight states. Six treaties are in force, but several boundaries remain unnegotiated.
Maritime Labour Convention
The Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006) is the ILO treaty, adopted 23 February 2006, in force 20 August 2013, setting minimum working and living standards for seafarers. Consolidates 37 earlier conventions; 113 ratifications cover 96.6% of world shipping tonnage; amended 2014, 2016, 2018, 2022, 2025.
Marrakesh Treaty
Marrakesh Treaty (Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled): WIPO copyright treaty adopted June 27, 2013, in force September 30, 2016, mandating copyright exceptions and cross-border exchange of accessible-format books; 106 contracting parties by 2026.
Martens Clause
The Martens Clause is a provision of international humanitarian law, first appearing in the preamble of the 1899 Hague Convention and proposed by Russian delegate Fyodor Martens.
Maryland Toleration Act
The Maryland Toleration Act, formally An Act Concerning Religion (April 21, 1649), granted freedom of conscience to all Christians and first used the phrase 'free exercise' of religion in the American colonies, while mandating death for Trinitarian blasphemy.
Mason–Dixon line
Mason–Dixon line: boundary surveyed 1763–1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between Pennsylvania and Maryland at 39°43′ N, later the symbolic free-state/slave-state divide after the 1820 Missouri Compromise debates.
Material breach of treaty
A material breach of treaty is a breach serious enough to let another party terminate or suspend the treaty, codified in Article 60 of the 1969 Vienna Convention.
Matrícula Consular
Matrícula Consular (matrícula consular de alta seguridad, MCAS): Mexican consular ID card for citizens abroad, issued since 1871, five-year validity, proving nationality, identity, and domicile without immigration status; distinct from Spain's consular registration.
Max Huber (statesman)
Max Huber (1874–1960) was a Swiss lawyer and judge who led the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1928 to 1944, directing its wartime relief operations.
Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law
The Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (MPIL, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht) is a Heidelberg research institute of the Max Planck Society, founded in Berlin in 1924, re-established in Heidelberg in 1949, covering public international law, EU law, human rights, and comparative public law.
McMahon Line
The McMahon Line is the 890-km India-Tibet boundary drawn by Sir Henry McMahon at the 1914 Simla Convention, defined in notes exchanged with Lonchen Shatra; initialled 27 April and 3 July 1914 but never accepted by China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as South Tibet.
Medellín v. Texas
Medellín v. Texas, 552 U.S. 491 (2008), a 6–3 Supreme Court decision holding that the ICJ's Avena judgment and President Bush's memorandum were not directly enforceable federal law against Texas habeas rules.
Medicine Lodge Treaty
Medicine Lodge Treaty: three October 1867 treaties at Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas, between a U.S. peace commission and the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, relocating them to Indian Territory reservations; Article 12's three-fourths consent rule later reached the Supreme Court in Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock.
Megatons to Megawatts Program
Megatons to Megawatts: 1993 US-Russia HEU Purchase Agreement converting 500 metric tons of warhead uranium into 15,200 tons of reactor fuel, ~20,000 warheads' worth, ~10% of US electricity, ended December 2013.
Member states of the World Trade Organization
The member states of the WTO are the 166 governments, including the European Union, that have accepted the WTO Agreement and cover about 98 percent of world trade.
Member-state implementation and reporting under Resolution 1373
Member-state implementation and reporting under Resolution 1373 is the process by which UN Member States report to the Counter-Terrorism Committee on implementing Resolution 1373 (2001).
Meusebach–Comanche Treaty
The Meusebach–Comanche Treaty, agreed March 1–2, 1847, on the lower San Saba River and signed at Fredericksburg on May 9, 1847, was a peace agreement between John O. Meusebach of the German Adelsverein and Comanche chiefs Buffalo Hump, Santa Anna, and others, opening over 3 million acres of the Fisher-Miller land grant to settlement.
Minimum Age Convention, 1973
Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) is an ILO fundamental convention requiring a minimum age for employment, adopted 26 June 1973, in force 19 June 1976, with 177 ratifications and ages of 15, 13, and 18 years.
Missile Technology Control Regime
The Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) is an informal, non-treaty export control arrangement founded by the G-7 in 1987 to restrict missiles and UAVs capable of delivering WMD; it has 35 Partners, Category I/II annex lists, and a strong presumption to deny Category I transfers.
Modern treaty-making in Canada
Modern treaty-making in Canada is the negotiation of Indigenous land claims through comprehensive agreements, a policy begun in 1973 with the first treaty signed in 1975.
Modus vivendi (diplomacy)
Modus vivendi (plural modi vivendi), in diplomacy, a temporary or provisional international agreement meant to be replaced by a more permanent arrangement; usually informal, never requiring ratification, as in the 1905 Dominican and 1941 US-Japan cases.
Mohammed Bedjaoui
Mohammed Bedjaoui (born 1929) is an Algerian jurist, diplomat, and ICJ judge and president. Distinguished from namesakes by his ILC special rapporteurship on state succession (1967-1981), the 1983 Vienna Convention, and his 1979 New International Economic Order scholarship.
Mongolia–Russia border agreements
The Mongolia–Russia border agreements are the treaties settling Mongolia's northern border, anchored by the 1915 Treaty of Kyakhta and the 1994 and 1996 trilateral protocols fixing the trijunctions with China.
Monism and dualism in international law
Monism and dualism in international law: two theories of how international and domestic law relate. Monism (Kelsen) unifies them with international supremacy; dualism (Triepel) separates them, requiring domestic transposition; both now serve mainly as analytical tools.
MONUC/MONUSCO mandate renewals
The MONUC/MONUSCO mandate renewals are the sequence of UN Security Council resolutions that established, renamed, and drew down the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1999 and the 2020s.
Morgenthau Plan
The Morgenthau Plan, also called the Program to Prevent Germany from Starting World War III, was Henry Morgenthau Jr.'s 1944 scheme to deindustrialize, pastoralize, and partition Germany; approved in part at Quebec, then dropped.
Moroccan–American Treaty of Friendship
The Moroccan-American Treaty of Friendship (Treaty of Peace and Friendship, 1786) between the United States and Sultan Mohammed III of Morocco: sealed June 23, 1786, ratified July 18, 1787, renewed 1836, the longest unbroken U.S. treaty relationship.