Note 880 — Chapter II · TREATIES

It is of importance to emphasise that the United States' Senate, in proposing an amendment to a treaty before its ratification, does not, strictly speaking, ratify such treaty conditionally, since it is the President, and not the Senate, who possesses the power of granting or refusing ratification; see Willoughby, "The Constitutional Law of the United States" (1910), I. p. 462, note 14. The President, however, according to article 2 of the Constitution, cannot grant ratification without the consent of the Senate, and the proposal of an amendment to a treaty on the part of the Senate, therefore, comprises, indirectly, the proposal of a new treaty.