by RobertNashville » Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:34 pm
Perhaps not the "best source" but this is what Wikipedia says about it...
-------------------
United States law
Main articles: Treaty Clause and Foreign policy of the United States
In the United States, the term "treaty" has a different, more restricted legal sense than exists in international law. U.S. law distinguishes what it calls treaties from treaty executive agreements, congressional-executive agreements, and sole executive agreements. All four classes are equally treaties under international law; they are distinct only from the perspective of internal American law. The distinctions are primarily concerning their method of ratification. Whereas treaties require advice and consent by two-thirds of the Senate, sole executive agreements may be executed by the President acting alone. Some treaties grant the President the authority to fill in the gaps with executive agreements, rather than additional treaties or protocols. And finally, congressional-executive agreements require majority approval by both the House and the Senate, either before or after the treaty is signed by the President.
Currently, international agreements are executed by executive agreement rather than treaties at a rate of 10:1. Despite the relative ease of executive agreements, the President still often chooses to pursue the formal treaty process over an executive agreement in order to gain congressional support on matters that require the Congress to pass implementing legislation or appropriate funds, and those agreements that impose long-term, complex legal obligations on the U.S.
-------------------
With regards to the subject at hand, I suspect it would have to go through the Senate but I don't know "who" classifies what kind of treaty a particular agreement is and, therefore, what ratification process applies.
Robert
-My Basset Hound is smarter than your honor student and 52% of the voting public -