ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses three fundamental questions: What is a treaty-based regime; what are the sources of participation and non-participation; and how differences in the domestic political structure and internal social norms in democracies and non-democracies produce varying responses to political and normative pressure from treaty regimes. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a strong dispute resolution mechanism and binding arbitration system built into the structure of the trade regime. The spread of nuclear weapons and technology is primarily managed through the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), which is administered by the international atomic energy agency (IAEA). Implementation of human rights treaty norms is highly contested and fraught with innumerable difficulties because it is entirely dependent on domestic governmental entities and the enforcement capacity of the treaty regimes is inadequate. International human rights regimes have primarily evolved through the UN-led treaty-based system of norm diffusion and advocacy group campaign.