1,303 articles
Prohibition of the use of force (Article 2(4))
The prohibition of the use of force, set out in Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, bars UN Members from threatening or using force against any state's territorial integrity or political independence.
Proposed treaties
A proposed treaty is a drafted but unsigned treaty, covering drafts under negotiation, adopted drafts never opened for signature, and abandoned proposals; multilateral negotiations average about 900 days.
Protecting power
A protecting power is a neutral State designated by one side of a conflict and approved by the other to perform humanitarian duties under the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
Protection of Diplomats Convention
The Protection of Diplomats Convention, formally the 1973 Convention on Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, is a UN anti-terrorism treaty in force 20 February 1977 with 180 parties, requiring criminalization and prosecution or extradition of attacks on diplomats and other protected persons.
Protocol (diplomacy)
Protocol (diplomacy): a formal international agreement with the same legal force as a treaty, usually less formal in name or supplementary to a parent convention; types include Protocol of Signature, Optional Protocol, and Protocol to Amend, exemplified by the Montreal Protocol.
Protocol (treaty)
A protocol, in international law, is a treaty instrument that supplements, amends, or extends a parent treaty; the name carries no fixed legal weight, as with the 1987 Montreal Protocol.
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons
Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons (Protocol IV to the 1980 CCW), adopted Vienna 13 October 1995, bans using and transferring lasers designed to cause permanent blindness; entered into force 30 July 1998, first weapon banned before battlefield use since 1868.
Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty
The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, known as the Madrid Protocol, is a 1991 treaty designating Antarctica a natural reserve and banning mining.
Protocol on Incendiary Weapons
Protocol III to the 1980 CCW, the Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, restricts napalm-type weapons: it bans attacks on civilians in all circumstances, bars air-delivered incendiaries in concentrations of civilians, and is criticized for excluding white phosphorus.
Provisional application of treaties
Provisional application of treaties, under VCLT Article 25, lets States apply a treaty before entry into force; codified in the ILC's 2021 Guide to Provisional Application of Treaties.
Pyrénées-Orientales
Pyrénées-Orientales (Catalan: Pirineus Orientals), French department 66, prefecture Perpignan; also called Roussillon or Catalunya Nord. Created 1790 from the province ceded by the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees plus the Fenouillèdes; 484,215 residents (2018), tourism-led economy.
Racial Equality Proposal
Japan's 1919 Racial Equality Proposal (人種的差別撤廃提案) sought a racial equality clause in the League of Nations Covenant; backed by a majority at the April 11 vote but defeated via Wilson's unanimity ruling after Australian and British opposition.
Radcliffe Line
The Radcliffe Line, also called the Radcliffe Award, is the boundary drawn in 1947 by Sir Cyril Radcliffe to divide Punjab and Bengal between newly independent India and Pakistan.
Rafael Altamira y Crevea
Rafael Altamira y Crevea was a Spanish historian and jurist, born in Alicante in 1866, who served on the Permanent Court of International Justice from 1921 to 1940.
Rainbow Warrior Case
Rainbow Warrior Case (New Zealand v. France): international dispute after the 1985 DGSE bombing of the Greenpeace ship in Auckland; settled by the UN Secretary-General's 1986 ruling and the 30 April 1990 arbitral award on state responsibility.
Ramón María de Dalmau y de Olivart
Ramón María de Dalmau y de Olivart (Ramon de Dalmau i d'Olivart) was a Spanish jurist and professor of international law at Barcelona and Madrid.
Raphael Lemkin
Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), Polish-Jewish lawyer, coined the word 'genocide' in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe and drove adoption of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
Ratification
Ratification is the international act by which a state consents to be bound by a treaty under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties; distinct from signature and accession, and shaped by domestic constitutional approval rules.
Ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon
Ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon: approval by all 27 EU member states of the treaty signed 13 December 2007, via parliaments and two Irish referendums (2008 rejected 53.4% no; 2009 passed 67.1%), entering into force 1 December 2009.
Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse
Raymond VII (Raimond VII de Toulouse, 1197-1249), last Count of Toulouse (1222-1249) and Marquis of Provence; son of Raymond VI and Jeanne of England; lost most of the county under the 1229 Treaty of Meaux-Paris.
Reception of international law in national legal systems (comparative models)
Reception of international law is the set of constitutional rules turning treaties and custom into domestically enforceable norms, comparing US self-execution, UK dualism, continental clauses, and mixed systems.
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, US-Hawaii Treaty of Reciprocity: bilateral commercial reciprocity pact signed January 30, 1875 by Hamilton Fish and Elisha H. Allen, admitting Hawaiian sugar duty-free into the US, fueling a sugar boom and Pearl Harbor's 1887 cession.
Reform of the United Nations Security Council
Security Council reform: the UN General Assembly effort since 1993 to change the Council's membership, regional representation, and P5 veto; IGN negotiations since 2009 remain deadlocked between G4, African Group, and Uniting for Consensus.
Refugee
Refugee: a person outside their country owing to well-founded fear of persecution under the 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol. 41.6 million refugees at end-2025; core principle non-refoulement; distinct from asylum-seekers and IDPs.
Regional and special custom in international law
Regional and special custom, also called particular custom, is customary international law that binds only a limited number of states, sometimes only two, rather than all states.
Registration and publication of treaties under the United Nations Charter
Article 102 UN Charter system requiring Member States to register treaties and international agreements with the Secretariat and their publication in the United Nations Treaty Series; unregistered treaties cannot be invoked before UN organs.
Registration Convention
The Registration Convention (1975) is the UN treaty requiring launching States to register space objects in national registries and report five data items to the UN Secretary-General's public Register; 78 parties, with known gaps in deadlines, transfers, and data.
Reims campaign
Reims campaign (1359-1360): Edward III's last Hundred Years' War expedition, aimed at taking Reims to be crowned king of France; the five-week siege failed, Paris refused battle, and the campaign ended in the Treaty of Brétigny.
Reko Diq case
The Reko Diq case is the Tethyan Copper v. Pakistan ICSID dispute (ARB/12/1) over Balochistan's 2011 denial of a mining lease, settled in 2022 with Barrick operating the reconstituted copper-gold project.
Related rights
Related rights, also called neighboring rights, are intellectual property rights granted to performers, producers of phonograms, and broadcasting organizations rather than authors, first covered internationally by the 1961 Rome Convention.