Artikel 2

1. For the purposes of the present Convention:
(a) “treaty” means an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its particular designation;
(b) “succession of States” means the replacement of one State by another in the responsibility for the international relations of territory;
(c) “predecessor State” means the State which has been replaced by another State on the occurrence of a succession of States;
(d) “successor State” means the State which has replaced another State on the occurrence of a succession of States;
(e) “date of the succession of States” means the date upon which the successor State replaced the predecessor State in the responsibility for the international relations of the territory to which the succession of States relates;
(f) “newly independent State” means a successor State the territory of which immediately before the date of the succession of States was a dependent territory for the international relations of which the predecessor was responsible;
(g) “notification of succession” means in relation to a multilateral treaty any notification, however phrased or named, made by a successor State expressing its consent to be considered as bound by the treaty;
(h) “full powers” means in relation to a notification of succession or any other notification under the present Convention a document emanating from the competent authority of a State designating a person or persons to represent the State for communicating the notification of succession or, as the case may be, the notification;
(i) “ratification”, “acceptance” and “approval” mean in each case the international act so named whereby a State establishes on the international plane its consent to be bound by a treaty;
(j) “reservation” means a unilateral statement, however phrased or named, made by a State when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty or when making a notification of succession to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that State;
(k) “contracting State” means a State which has consented to be bound by the treaty, whether or not the treaty has entered into force;
(l) “party” means a State which has consented to be bound by the treaty and for which the treaty is in force;
(m) “other State party” means in relation to a successor State any party, other than the predecessor State, to a treaty in force at the date of a succession of States in respect of the territory to which that succession of States relates;
(n) “international organization” means an intergovernmental organization.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 regarding the use of terms in the present Convention are without prejudice to the use of those terms or to the meanings which may be given to them in the internal law of any State.