Prepared by , Foreign & International Law Librarian
Last revised: May 2009
United States Sources
--T.I.A.S. and U.S.T. are official U.S. sources. However, they run many years behind. For recent agreements it is necessary to use one of the sources noted below.
--The State Department is making an attempt to publish T.I.A.S. online. So far, this effort covers only the years 1996-1998, and part of 1999.
--T.I.A.S. and U.S.T. are both available on Hein Online in the Treaties and Agreements Library.
--These unpublished agreements are also available on Hein Online in the Treaties and Agreements Library, where they are called "KAV Agreements."
--Both Westlaw and Lexis have large databases of U.S. international agreements, including recent unpublished agreements.
--Senate Treaty Documents are also available online.
Non-United States Sources
--U.N.T.S. covers the period 1946-present.
--U.N.T.S. is part of the United Nations Treaty Collection online.
--L.N.T.S. covers the period 1920-1946.
--Consol. T.S. covers the period 1648-1919.
--I.L.M. is an excellent source for recent international agreements of significance not easily found elsewhere.
--I.L.M. is also available on Westlaw (ILM), Lexis, and Hein Online.
--C.E.T.S. is the treaty series of the Council of Europe & now contains over 200 agreements.
--Also available online.
Historical Sources
--Until 1949 U.S. international agreements were published in Stat.
--T.S. & E.A.S. are the predecessors of T.I.A.S. & U.S.T.
--Bevans is a useful 13 volume collection and is citable according to the Bluebook.
--Bevans is available on Hein Online.
--This commercial publication can be used to supplement Treaties in Force.
--The "Treaties" tab in the Senate volume tracks agreements pending in the Senate.
--This covers about 290 agreements, some very important, for which the U.N. Secretary-General acts as the depositary. Also publishes reservations, declarations and understandings.
National Collections (other than the U.S.)
Agreements Sponsored by International Organizations
For the texts of international agreements, as well as up-to-date ratification and other status information, the websites sponsored by international organizations and treaty secretariats listed here are excellent.
Treaty Secretariats
Researchers can start with the convenient list maintained by Mary Rumsey (University of Minnesota Law Library): Frequently-Cited Treaties and Other International Instruments.
A useful trick is to search on the name of the agreement in the law review databases of Westlaw or Lexis. There will considerable variation, but it is usually not difficult to pick out the most accurate citation.
If it is necessary to construct a citation from scratch, the researcher will need to refer to the rule in either The Bluebook (18th ed. 2005) or the ALWD Citation Manual (2d ed. 2003). In the former, it is Rule 21.4; in the latter, Rule 21.
As to Rule 21 in the ALWD Citation Manual, it must be said that it is incomplete, inadequate, and inaccurate. A single example will have to suffice: In chart 21.1 accompanying the rule (found only on the web, not in the book), U.N.T.S. is given last in a list of 17 authorized sources, and, to compound matters, it is described as "unofficial"! In short, international agreements should not be cited according to the ALWD Citation Manual until the rule is revised and improved.
Rule 21.4 of The Bluebook has several sub-rules. The critical one is 21.4.5 on citation sources. Condensing sub-rule 21.4.5 to its essentials produces the following:
- When the U.S. is a party, cite one source in the following order of preference: U.S.T. or Stat., T.I.A.S., T.S. or E.A.S., Senate Treaty Documents or Senate Executive Documents. (Some additional possibilites are given, but they are not good.)
- When the U.S. is not a party, cite one source published by an international organization. If not therein, cite the official source of one party, e.g., Austl. T.S.
-When an agreement does not appear in one of the foregoing sources, cite to I.L.M., if therein. If not, cite to another "unofficial" source, which may include the websites of governments or intergovernmental organizations.
Finally, table T.4 on p. 334 gives the titles, abbreviations, and dates of coverage of 16 authorized citation sources.
Many treaty research guides can be found on the Web using a Google search. Some examples of good ones are: