The Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) was enacted to adapt the Copyright Act to the Berne Convention.
Relation to the Berne Convention
1. Members shall comply with Articles 1 through 21 of the Berne Convention (1971) and the Appendix thereto.
Nothing in Parts I to IV of this Agreement shall derogate from existing obligations that Members may have to each other under the Paris Convention, the Berne Convention, the Rome Convention and the Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits.
In general this was the philosophy underlying the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic Works(1886).
Berne Convention for the Protection Literary and Artistic Works
Article 9 Relation to the Berne Convention
Berne Convention is the most important and most effective world copyright protection convention.
(b) granted in accordance with the provisions of the Berne Convention (1971) or the Rome Convention authorizing that the treatment accorded be a function not of national treatment but of the treatment accorded in another country;
However, the provisions of Article 18 of the Berne Convention (1971) shall also apply, mutatis mutandis, to the rights of performers and producers of phonograms in phonograms.