Note that the term "treaty" has a narrower meaning in US law than it does in international law. The 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which is the primary source of modern international treaty law, takes a broad view of treaty practice, i.e., most international agreements of any kind, whatever their titles, are considered "treaties." [Notice from the US Department of State website: "The United States signed [the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties] on April 24, 1970. The U.S. Senate has not given its advice and consent to the treaty. The United States considers many of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to constitute customary international law on the law of treaties."

Treaty-making in the United States is governed by Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, of the United States Constitution, which says that the President of the United States "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur[.]" In present practice the executive branch usually negotiates treaties. A signed treaty is then referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After the treaty is approved in committee, it is voted on by the entire US Senate. "Ratification" takes place only when the treaty parties formally exchange instruments of ratification.

The United States increasingly uses "Executive Agreements" in place of treaties. Executive Agreements may either be "Presidential" Executive Agreements or "Congressional" Executive Agreements.

Note that although the United States does not consider an "Executive Agreement" to be a treaty, under public international law Executive Agreements are considered treaties.

Good coverage of the unique treaty practice of the United States is found in: