Skip to Main Content

Sources of Public International Law

This guide will help you locate the sources necessary for researching a problem involving public international law.

Indexes

Senate Materials

Consist of two main sources, Senate Treaty Documents, which generally contain the text of the Presidential communication supporting ratification and the treaty itself, and Senate Executive Reports, which are the reports generated by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Travaux Préparatoires ​

A French term for the official record of negotiation, Travaux can help resolve ambiguities in the text itself and the intent of the parties.

Ideally, someone has already collected those materials and published them as a book, which is easily discoverable in a library catalog by using the French term itself as a keyword.  For example:

Some travaux like material has been compiled and is available online, like at the Historic Archives of the United Nations: 

If neither is an option, then you are left to searching secondary sources for references to the necessary materials that you could then track down by citation.  

Introduction

Don't let the language confuse you ... treaties, conventions, agreements, protocols, etc., all have the same effect under international law and are often used interchangeably when talking about this type of source.  Despite the language issue, treaties are often the clearest and easy to understand source of public international law because of how they come into being and what intended effect they have upon the parties.  The sources you consult to do this research will depend on two factors: 1) if the treaty is bilateral or multilateral, and 2) whether or not the United States is a party.  Doing the research itself will look similar either way as you try to utilize indexes or secondary sources to find citations that lead you to the full text of a treaty.  Once located, you need to determine the status of the treaty and if the language of the text is ambiguous, the treaty's drafting history.  Pay special attention to the abbreviation for the various sources as that is how you will likely see them present in citations...

U.S. Treaties - Slip Form

The slips for agreements that the Senate had to approve and those that they didn't were published in separate places until the two types were brought together into one resource the Treaty and Other International Act Series (TIAS) in 1945.

U.S. Official Treaty Publication

Until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the Senate were published in the United States Statutes at Large (Stat.), which can be found on the following databases:

Since 1950, the United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) collects and publishes annually and in a bound fashion all the slip agreements entered into, which can be found on the following databases:

 

Non-U.S. International Conventions (Treaties)

Official texts of bilateral and multilateral international treaties are each kept by the body which serves as the secretariat for that treaty.  Examples:

While each country usually publishes their treaties in print, increasingly, national governments are putting their treaties online. For instance:

You can also find texts on websites of NGOs and international organizations which have an interest in a particular subject matter. For instance:

Text collections can also be found at academic institutions. For instance:

U.S. Unofficial Publication

Historical:

Current:

International Legal Materials (ILM) publishes select treaties and is available on multiple databases:

Current Status

Three things you will need to figure out to understand the current status of a treaty: 1) whether or not it has entered into force, 2) whether or not a country has become a party, and 3) whether or not a country has made any Reservations, Understandings, or Declarations (RUDs), which can impact the effect of the agreement.

To figure out whether a treaty has entered into force, it is easiest to go directly to the text of the treaty itself to see what conditions were required.  This is typically found towards the end of the agreement.

To both figure out whether a country is a party and whether or not they have lodged any RUDs, your best bet is to look towards the Despositary Institution.  For example, the United Nations, which serves as the depositary for many treaties has a database that will give you status information: