Recommended Sources for Treaty Research
U.S. Resources
To identify treaties to which the U.S. is currently a party, or determine whether a known U.S. treaty is in force, consult the most recent version of Treaties in Force (TIF), published by the U.S. State Department. TIF is available on the State Department's Office of Treaty Affairs website, with prior years available in HeinOnline. TIF is an index, providing lists, organized by subject (and for bilateral treaties, jurisdiction) of treaties in force in a particular year, and provides information regarding the treaties listed, such as the depositary of the treaty and citation information to full-text publication, but it does not provide their full text.
To locate the full text of a treaty to which the U.S. is a party, researchers may need to consult several sources. All treaties to which the U.S. is a party should be published in Text of International Agreements to which the U.S. is a Party (TIAS). In practice, however, there are often significant gaps in State Department publication. HeinOnline's U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library is a good place to search for full-text treaties, as it compiles a number of official and commercial treaty publications in a single platform.
- Treaties in Force: State Department WebsiteTo identify treaties to which the U.S. is currently a party, or determine whether a known U.S. treaty is in force, search for treaties by topic in the most recent version Treaties in Force (TIF), published on the U.S. Department of State website.
- Texts of International Agreements to which the US is a Party (TIAS): State Department WebsiteCongress requires the State Department to publish the full texts of U.S. treaties and executive agreements in TIAS. Online coverage on the State Department website includes select agreements from 1981 to present, and agreements are organized by year. There is no search function, and coverage is not comprehensive.
- TIAS in HeinOnlineThough TIAS is available on the web, researchers may prefer to utilize the version available in HeinOnline (1982 - present) because it offers a search function, and coverage in Hein's U.S. Treaties and Agreements database more generally is considered to be more comprehensive than the collection available on State's own site.
- United States Treaty Collection: Library of CongressIncludes the United States Treaty Series, 1795 - 1945, compiled by Charles I. Bevans, and TIAS from 1950 - 1983. Content is digitized by volume and provided in PDF format.
- U.S. Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST): HeinOnlineA compilation of treaties already previously published in TIAS, includes U.S. treaties published by the State Department between 1950 and 1984.
- U.S. Treaties: WestlawCompiles treaties published in TIAS and UST, and older treaties published in the U.S. Statutes at Large, as well as material submitted to the U.S. Senate. Coverage 1778 - present.
- Congress.gov > Treaty DocumentsTreaty documents are available on Congress.gov for treaties submitted to the Senate since the 81st Congress (1949). Treaty overviews include most recent action pertaining to the treaty in the Senate.
World Treaty Collections
In seeking full-text treaties to which the U.S. is not a party (or U.S. treaties that evade State Department publication), you might first consult, for multilateral treaties, the website of the depositary of that treaty, and for bilateral treaties, available web materials offered by the state party governments. Additional resources include:
- World Treaty Library- HeinOnlineDatabase includes the United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaties Series, U.S. treaty publications, and a number of major commercial treaty indices and publications.
- United Nations Treaty Collection: Treaty StatusCurrent status information for treaties deposited with the UN Secretary-General.
- WorldLII International Treaties CollectionWorldLII, a free resource for foreign and international legal materials on the web, includes regional and foreign treaty collections from Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, India, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, the United States, the United Nations, and WIPO.
Historical Treaty Collections Online
- Statutes at Large: Library of CongressUntil 1950, when Congress required, via statute, that the State Department produce an annual treaty publication, all U.S. agreements were published in the U.S. Statutes at Large.
- Statutes at Large: HeinOnlineOption to browse included treaties, organized by jurisdiction. Search function available.
- Oxford Historical TreatiesIncludes a full-text, searchable version (with PDF images) of The Consolidated Treaty Series, a significant collection of global treaties concluded from 1648 to 1919, amongst other historical treaty publications.
Treaty Indexes
Treaty Indexes
Indices help researchers find treaties on a particular subject. The congress.gov treaty search allows researchers to search for U.S. treaties by topic using the subject filter. The HeinOnline World Treaty Library Index does the same for both U.S. & non-U.S. treaties.
- World Treaty IndexFree on the web; may contain references to some treaties that are not available through congress.gov or HeinOnline.
International Legal Materials (Unofficial Treaty Text)
This American Society of International Law (ASIL) publication covers significant developments in international law, including reports on cases from both international and domestic courts and arbitral bodies, treaties, resolutions and reports from intergovernmental organizations, and domestic legislation impacting international law and relations. In many cases, ILM includes a full-text version of the primary document along with any editorial summary.
- International Legal Materials: WestlawCoverage from 1980.
- International Legal Materials: Lexis AdvanceCoverage from 1962.
- International Legal Materials: HeinOnlineCoverage from 1962. Indexing only (no full-text) for most recent 2 years.
