Opinion ID: $opinion_id
Heading Depth: 3.0
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: $label

Text: Nontextual sources that often assist us in "giving effect to the intent of the Treaty parties," Sumitomo, supra, at 185, such as a treaty's ratification history and its subsequent operation, further fail to sustain respondents' claim. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations did not hold hearings on the Convention prior to its ratification in 1942, and the Committee Report did not even mention the provisions for exchange of information. See S. Exec. Rep. No. 3, 77th Cong., 2d Sess. (1942), 1 Legislative History of United States Tax Conventions (Committee Print compiled by the Staff of the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation) 455 (1962) (Leg. Hist.). The sole reference to these provisions during the brief floor debate in the Senate contained no hint that the 1942 Convention was intended to incorporate domestic restrictions on the issuance of summonses by the IRS in connection with American tax investigations, such as the limitation later codified in § 7602(c).[7] The President's message accompanying transmittal of the proposed treaty to the Senate, see S. Exec. Doc. B, 77th Cong., 2d Sess. (1942), reprinted in Leg. Hist. 445, and the President's Proclamation at the time the Convention was signed, see Leg. Hist. 475, 56 Stat. 1399, similarly contain no language supporting respondents' argument. Indeed, given that a treaty should generally be "construe[d] . . . liberally to give effect to the purpose which animates it" and that "[e]ven where a provision of a treaty fairly admits of two constructions, one restricting, the other enlarging, rights which may be claimed under it, the more liberal interpretation is to be preferred," Bacardi Corp. of America v. Domenech, 311 U.S. 150, 163 (1940) (citations omitted), the evident purpose behind Articles XIX and XXI _x0097_ the reduction of tax evasion by allowing signatories to demand information from each other _x0097_ counsels against interpreting those provisions to limit inquiry in the manner respondents desire. In any event, nothing in the history of the Convention's ratification buttresses respondents' claim.[8]