Treaties are a significant source of international law (i.e. law between states), and nations have crafted treaties to govern their relationships with one another for centuries. Researchers often learn of treaties that may be relevant to their topic via secondary sources, and if you are not sure whether there are treaties relevant to you research, it is worth locating books, articles, and reputable web resources discussing your topic to first identify relevant agreements.
Locating treaty text:
Once you have identified relevant treaties, locating the text of those treaties may be relatively easy. Most current multilateral treaties (agreements between more than two state parties) are deposited with international organizations who provide their text and status information on the web. Locating bilateral treaties (agreements between two state parties) can be more challenging. Bilateral treaties to which the U.S. is a party may be published in official U.S. treaty publications (see Sources for further information), but locating bilateral treaties between other nations may require searching foreign legal materials, resources with global coverage such as the United Nations Treaty Series, commercial databases, and beyond.
Beyond the text:
Researchers should understand that once they have located the text of their relevant treaty, their work may not yet be complete.
See the Treaty Vocabulary section of this guide for resources offering additional terminology with which you should familiarize yourself.
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