A protectorate is always the creation of a treaty. It involves a certain measure of control, and a total or partial loss of sovereignty. In many cases, it has involved the loss of control of foreign relations and the disappearance of the protected state from the community of nations. In spite of common features possessed by protectorates under international law, they had individual legal characteristics resulting from the special conditions under which they were created and from the level of their development.

However, these arrangements cannot be termed as treaties, since the local rulers did not enjoy an international personality necessary to conclude a treaty.