Currently, the likelihood of international agreements being implemented by an executive agreement is ten times higher. Despite the relative simplification of executive agreements, the President still often chooses to continue the formal process of concluding an executive agreement in order to gain congressional support on issues that require Congress to pass appropriate enforcement laws or means, as well as agreements that impose complex long-term legal obligations on the United States. For example, the agreement of the United States, Iran and other countries is not a treaty. In the United States, the term “treaty” has a different, more limited legal meaning than in international law. U.S. legislation distinguishes what it calls “treaties” from “executive agreements” that are either “executive agreements of Congress” or “single executive agreements.” Classes are all treatises of international law in the same way; they differ only in U.S. domestic law. Articles 46-53 of the Vienna Convention on Treaty Law define the only ways to declare treaties invalid – which is considered unenforceable and void in international law. A treaty is invalidated either because of the circumstances in which a State party has acceded to the treaty, or because of the very content of the treaty. Cancellation is separate from termination, suspension or termination (addressed above), all of which involve a change in the consent of the parties to a previously valid contract, not the nullity of that consent in the first place. Under international law, a treaty is a legally binding agreement between states (countries).

A treaty can be called a convention, protocol, pact, agreement, etc. It is the content of the agreement, not its name, that makes it a treaty. Thus, the Geneva Protocol and the Biological Weapons Convention are the two treaties, although neither treaty in its name. Under U.S. law, a treaty is a legally binding agreement between countries that requires ratification and “consultation and approval” of the Senate. All other agreements (internationally treated) are called executive agreements, but are nevertheless legally binding on the United States under international law. There are three ways to change an existing treaty. First, a formal change requires that States Parties be forced to go through the ratification process again. The renegotiation of the treaty provisions can be long and time-consuming and often some parties to the original treaty will not become parties to the amended treaty. In determining the legal obligations of states, a party to the original treaty and a party to the amended treaty, states are bound only by the conditions on which they have agreed.