The Fractured Covenant: Treaty Violations, Historical Grievance, and the Erosion of Trust in International Law

Abstract This paper contends that the systematic disregard for treaties between Muslim states has been the catalyst for a level of distrust between cultures and has contributed to the legitimacy concerns regarding the international legal system. The historical root of these concerns lies in the systematic violation of treaties between Muslim and non-Muslim civilizations from the time of the Crusades through the colonial period, in which treaties were employed and subsequently invalidated on the grounds of legal systems that denied full participation in international law for Muslim states. The treatment of treaties in Islam and their inviolability is safe-guarded by the following premise: that treaties in Islam are sacred and inviolable. The premise is analogous to pacta sunt servanda and has been historical in content since the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.