International Obligations and U.S. Law  October 16, 2007 U.S.
Department of State's Legal Adviser John B. Bellinger III  John
B. Bellinger IIIis the Legal Advisor to the Secretary of State.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a
significant case involving U.S. treaty obligations. The
Government urged the Court to affirm the President’s authority
to order compliance with a ruling of the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. The case was argued by the Solicitor
General, and the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser
helped to draft the briefs.  The case before the Supreme Court
involved the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and its
Optional Protocol. Under the Vienna Convention, a country that
is party to the Convention and that arrests a national of
another party must inform the person arrested that he can seek
assistance from a consular officer of his country. The Optional
Protocol allows states who disagree about what the Vienna
Convention requires to take the