international
How might the mention of &quot;the acquis&quot; amongst the principles of an international treaty affect its interpretation?
<p>The <a href="http://www.tralac.org/resources/by-region/comesa-eac-sadc-tripartite-fta.html" rel="nofollow">Tripartite free-trade agreement</a> was recently signed between various African nations, and includes the following text in its principles:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The principles governing this Agreement shall be the following:</p>
  
  <p>[...]</p>
  
  <p>e) building on the <em>acquis</em>;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This term is not defined in the text.  My understanding is that it therefore refers to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_acquis" rel="nofollow">Community acquis</a>, i.e. the "accumulated legislation, legal acts, and court decisions which constitute the body of European Union law".  Please correct me if I have misinterpreted.</p>

<p>My question is, how might this statement influence the way that the treaty is implemented?  For instance, would this enable the dispute settlement mechanism to refer to precedents in EU law in reaching a decision?</p>

<p>The full text of the agreement is available <a href="http://www.tralac.org/images/docs/7646/signed-tfta-agreement-and-declaration-june-2015.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>

<p>Although the term <em>acquis</em> is very commonly (almost always?) used to refer to EU precedent, the word roughly translates as "that which has been agreed" and there's no reason that other legal communities can't use it to refer to their own body of previous decisions.  Perhaps <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/acquis" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia</a> and <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/acquis" rel="nofollow">Wiktionary</a> are both misleading in their handling and redirection of this term.</p>

<p>The intended meaning of this term within the Tripartite negotiation is explained by the Trade Law Centre in <a href="http://www.tralac.org/files/2013/06/S13TB022013-Erasmus-Redirecting-the-Tripartite-FTA-negotiations-20130626-fin.pdf" rel="nofollow"><em>Redirecting the Tripartite Free Trade Agreement negotiations?</em></a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>v) Building on the acquis of the existing REC FTAs in terms of
  consolidating tariff liberalisation in each REC FTA</strong></p>
  
  <p>Acquis is a French
  term meaning ‘that which has been agreed’. In the context of the
  Tripartite Free Trade Agreement it means that the negotiations should
  start from the point at which of the COMESA, EAC and SADC trade
  negotiations have reached.</p>
  
  <p>Tariff negotiations and the exchange of
  tariff concessions would be among Member/Partner States of the
  Tripartite FTA that have no preferential arrangements in place between
  them. This will both preserve the acquis and build on it.</p>
</blockquote>
