- 6 - the statute and the treaty can be harmoniously applied or whether the provisions of the treaty override the provisions of the statute, as petitioners contend. In interpreting a treaty and a statute that pertain to the same subject matter, the general rule is that the provisions of both should be construed to be in harmony. Whitney v. Robertson, 124 U.S. 190, 194 (1888); see also The Cherokee Tobacco, 78 U.S. 616 (1870); Samann v. Commissioner, 313 F.2d 461, 463 (4th Cir. 1963), affg. 36 T.C. 1011 (1961); Am. Trust Co. v. Smyth, 247 F.2d 149, 152-153 (9th Cir. 1957). However, if the provisions of one conflict with those of the other, then the one adopted last in time generally prevails. See Chae Chan Ping v. United States, 130 U.S. 581, 600 (1889); Whitney v. Robertson, supra at 194; Pekar v. Commissioner, 113 T.C. 158 (1999); Lindsey v. Commissioner, 98 T.C. 672 (1992), affd. without published opinion 15 F.3d 1160 (D.C. Cir. 1994). As the Supreme Court explained in Whitney v. Robertson, supra at 194: By the Constitution a treaty is placed on the same footing, and made of like obligation, with an act of legislation. Both are declared by that instrument to be the supreme law of the land, and no superior efficacy is given to either over the other. When the two relate to the same subject, the courts will always endeavor to construe them so as to give effect to both, if that can be done without violating the language of either; but ifPage: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Next
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