This guide is intended to be a supplement to the Law Library’s comprehensive Guide to Treaty Research. The advice contained in that guide should also be observed when researching older treaties. While pre-1949 treaties used to be very difficult to find in electronic format, many of the treaty collections and finding aids described in this guide are now available from HeinOnline's World Treaty Library or U.S. Treaties and Agreements Library. Where electronic versions are not available or preferred, the Diamond Law Library's vast print historical treaty collection can be consulted.
Finding the official full-text sources for a treaty can be a tricky endeavor. The best way to start your search for a treaty is to consult one of the following indexes or finding aids to find the relevant citation for your treaty.
Published in 1965 by the Harvard Law School Library, this is one of the best starting places for finding historical treaties. This single volume is a chronological list of 3859 multilateral treaties and other agreements from 1596 through 1963. The text contains citations to the full text of the agreement within a variety of primary sources. Particularly useful subject and regional indexes are also included separately.
This large volume lists basic information – including citations to sources containing the full text – about multilateral treaties that were signed between 1648 and 1995. It is arranged in chronological order, making it a fantastic resource if you happen to know when the treaty was signed, or if you're researching treaties within a particular date range. It provides citations to many of the sets we own at the Diamond Law Library.
This five volume set attempts to index all treaties signed worldwide from 1900-1980. The treaties are summarized in chronological order. Each summary contains good, basic information, including parties, dates of signing/ratification, and citations to the United Nations Treaty Series or the League of Nations Treaty Series, if therein. Volumes 4 and 5 index treaties by party and keyword, respectively. Unfortunately, the World Treaty Index has not been supplemented since the 2nd edition was published in 1983.
This three volume set was published to serve as a complete consolidated index to the United Kingdom Treaty Series, and it is indispensable for finding basic information about both bilateral and multilateral British treaties. Volume One contains three separate indexes: multilateral treaties by subject, bilateral treaties by country, and bilateral treaties by subject. Each entry in Volume One indicates a date of signature. Once the date is ascertained, consult Volumes Two and Three, which contain treaties from 1101 to 1968 in chronological order, for basic information about the treaty, including the source(s) containing the full text. A fourth volume covering the period 1969-1988 supplements this set. This is the best substitute for the lack of a source indicating the status of British treaties.
Published by Hein, this 13 volume, comprehensive tool covers treaties from 1776 to present, whether ratified or not. Most volumes are revised through 1995, but there is a consolidated, bound supplement. You can access the set by treaty number, subject, country, title, and date. The first five volumes contain the "master guide," organized by treaty number. For each treaty in this section, you will learn if there are parallel citations, when and where it was signed, when it entered into force, and subsequent activity. It does not tell you whether the treaty is currently in force (see Treaties in Force). The other indexes only provide enough information to lead you back to the Master Guide.
Published by the U.S. State Department in 1919 in preparation of the Paris Peace Conference, this list contains references not to individual treaties but to the location and titles of various treaty collections. This work was largely superseded by the Manual of Collections of Treaties published by Harvard University Press several years later.
Contains a list of general ancient and modern treaty collections, collections by states and a valuable list of collections by subject. The appendix contains an essay from the book's editor, Dennis Peter Meyers, about the publication of treaties which is an interesting historical sketch of treaty publications from the earliest times down to the beginning of the League of Nations Treaty Series.
This single volume is a chronological list of basic information about treaties signed between 1814 and 1918. It includes references to sources containing the full text of the agreements in English and in other languages, where available. The entry list is admittedly incomplete as to both treaties and sources, but it includes very helpful information for 3318 treaties (and 98 selected treaties signed between 1353 and 1814) it does include. Though published by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this source contains references to both and non-U.S. bi-lateral and multilateral treaties. A thorough country index is also included. If you happen to be searching for the text of a treaty that falls within this date range, this is a particularly useful resource.
To use these resources in print, search the title of the finding aid in Pegasus.
Though brief and annoyingly structured, this is an excellent bibliography of the literature relating to the history of treaties - including many non-English language sources - and treaty collections.