Foreign & International Law: Treaties

1. Locate the treaty text (from an authoritative source)
2. Determine whether the treaty is still in force? Who are the parties? Are there any reservations? Are there any amendments?
3. Determine whether there been any litigation (U.S. or other) regarding the treaty?
4. Determine whether there are questions about interpretation?
5. Consider:
   1. Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
   2. Commentaries, judicial decisions, drafting history (Travaux Préparatoires).

• EUR-Lex National Transposition
  • Using English, search the laws of EU member states
• Google Translate
  • This tool may be useful for rough translations, such as determining whether a document has potential relevance.
• ITL Foreign Law Translations
  • This site is a resource for French, German, Austrian, and Israeli legal materials in the fields of constitutional, administrative, contract and tort law.
• Linguee
  • Linguee is a web service that provides an online dictionary for a number of language pairs. Unlike similar services, Linguee incorporates a search engine that provides access to large amounts of bilingual sentence pairs found online

• Foreign & International Law Research Guides (Georgetown Law Library)
  • United Nations
• Foreign & International Law Guides (Columbia Law School)
  • Treaties
• Treaties & Agreements Legal Research
  • This tutorial is designed to teach students research strategies and methodology for researching both print and electronic sources of international legal materials, including treaties.
• À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires
  • This guide from GlobaLex provides guidance on researching the drafting history of international agreements.

Websites

• Congress.gov
  • Legislative history summaries of treaty actions, with links to Treaty Documents back to 1949.
• Hague Council on Private International Law (HCCH)
  • Conventions and Other Instruments
  • With 83 Members (82 States and the European Union) representing all continents, the Hague Conference on Private International Law is a global inter-governmental organisation. A melting pot of different legal traditions, it develops and services multilateral legal instruments, which respond to global needs.
• International Court of Justice (ICJ)
  • Treaties - This site complies International Court of Justice treaties.
• United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)
  • Online Search for United Nations Treaties through this United Nations Treaty Collection.
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
  • Legal Texts This site provides access to approximately 60 WTO agreements and decisions, totaling 550 pages.

Subscription Services

HeinOnline

• U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library
• Exploring HeinOnline Guides

Treaties are generally published chronologically rather than by subject. Treaties in Force, an annual Department of State publication, is the official index to current United States treaties and agreements. The first section of Treaties in Force lists bilateral treaties by country and, under each country, by subject; and the second section lists multilateral treaties by subject.

A proper citation to a treaty includes its name, the date of its signing, the parties (if there are only two or three), and references to the main sources of publication. Sometimes finding the proper citation may be difficult.

Pro Tip: Search the law review database for the title, popular name, or subject of a treaty. The footnotes should provide the necessary references.

Official sources for treaties to which the United States was a party.

Before 1950

• Treaties before 1950 were published in the Statutes at Large.
• Reprinted in Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776–1949 (TIAS)

1950 - 1984

• United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST)

1984 - Present

• Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS)

Most researchers rely on the commercial services for current treaties and retrospective coverage. Westlaw and Lexis have comprehensive treaty coverage from the 1770s through recent months.

HeinOnline

• U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library
  • Provides PDF versions of treaties in Statutes at Large, UST, and TIAS, as well as recent treaties not yet published officially.
  • Kavass's Current Treaty Index
  • U.S. Treaty Index
• Exploring HeinOnline Guides