Article 43 Consent to be Bound

This chapter examines Article 43 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The formal act by which a state consents to be bound by a treaty is expressed through ratification. The various legal terms used to denote such consent (ie acceptance, approval, or accession) produce the same functional and legal effect in the international sphere. Their differences lie chiefly in the states’ internal/constitutional sphere. Article 43 CRPD departs from equivalent provisions in other treaties under the UN aegis, as well as other multilateral treaties, at least in phrasing. Other multilateral treaties specifically distinguish between the two classical types of consent: a) that which is open to signatory states, namely ratification, acceptance and approval and; b) that which is open to non-signatories, namely accession. Article 43 does not make this distinction explicit. Its wording seems to suggest that acceptance and approval are excluded from its ambit, but given that both of these produce exactly the same legal effects as ratification, the distinction is practically meaningless.