Pakistan, Aug. 29 -- Every so often a diplomatic intervention arrives that tells you more about the author's political needs than the law it claims to explain. Vinay Mohan Kwatra's recent Newsweek essay on the Indus Waters Treaty falls squarely into that category. It is presented as a legal defence of India's unilateral "abeyance," but in truth it is a political argument searching for a legal costume.

The central question is not whether India is frustrated with Pakistan, or whether bilateral relations have deteriorated. The central question is whether a state can simply suspend a binding international treaty by issuing a unilateral political declaration. The answer, under the treaty's own terms, is no.

Where, exactly, is the power of un...