128 COLUM. J. RACE & L. [Vol. 11:83 discrimination, contained in all major international and regional human rights instruments, is by now a well-settled rule of customary international law that has become a jus cogens, or peremptory, norm.”192 While certainly an important contribution to the discourse around the prohibition of racial discrimination in the context of nationality, observations about the jus cogens status of racial non-discrimination, in the absence of principled analysis, are limited in their ability to advance the robustness of the legal framework. A. Impact of Conflict with a Jus Cogens Norm The “starting point for any study of jus cogens” is the VCLT.193 Article 53 of the Convention states: A treaty is void if, at the time of its conclusion, it conflicts with a peremptory norm of general international law. For the purposes of the present Convention, a peremptory norm of general international law is a norm accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted and which can be modified only by a subsequent norm of general international law having the same character.194 Not only is the content of jus cogens a fiercely contested issue (which will be revisited in depth below), but the timing of the emergence of a jus cogens norm can also be contentious. In order to avoid complicated arguments as to whether a particular jus cogens norm had indeed emerged at the time a treaty was concluded, Article 64 of the VCLT provides that “[i]f a new peremptory norm of general international law emerges, any existing treaty which is in conflict with that norm becomes void and terminates.” 195 Accordingly, once a jus cogens norm is identified, any existing treaty may be assessed for compliance 192 James A. Goldston, Holes in the Rights Framework: Racial Discrimination, Citizenship, and the Rights of Noncitizens, 20 ETHICS & INT’L AFF. 321, 328 (2006). 193 Int’l L. Comm’n, Rep. on the Work of Its Sixty-Sixth Session, Supplement No. 10, U.N. Doc. A/69/10, at 277 (Aug. 8, 2014) quoted in Dire Tladi (Special Rapporteur), Second Report on Jus Cogens, ¶ 33, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/706 (Mar. 16, 2017). See also Int’l L. Comm’n, Fragmentation of International Law, Difficulties Arising from the Diversification and Expansion of International Law, ¶ 375, U.N. Doc. A/CN.4/L.682, (Apr. 13, 2006) [hereinafter Int’l L. Comm’n, Fragmentation of International Law]. 194 VCLT, supra note 101, art. 53. 195 Id. art. 64.