Researching Treaties:
A Tutorial by the Georgetown University Law Library
Copyright 2007 Georgetown University Law Library.
Introduction
What is a treaty?
According to Article 1(a) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a treaty is
 an international agreement concluded between States in written form and governed by international
law, whether embodied in a single instrument or in two or more related instruments and whatever its
particular designation.
Two or many?
Some treaties are bilateral... between just two countries.
Others are multilateral... between many countries.
There's a treaty on (almost) everything
Treaties, like international law in general, affect many aspects of our lives. There are treaties that...
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guarantee that the mail gets delivered.
protect wildlife.
ensure basic human rights.
regulate international trade.
What's in a name?
Treaties can go by lots of different names, for example:
pacts, agreements, conventions, statutes, accords, charters, final acts.
But legally there's no difference!
What's ahead?
In this tutorial, you can choose what you'd like to learn about treaties. You will learn about
 bilateral treaties to which the U.S. is a party;
 bilateral treaties to which the U.S. in not a party; or
 multilateral treaties.
Bilateral Treaties to which the U.S. is a Party
Did you know that under U.S. law
 there is a distinction between the terms treaty and agreement?
 that the term treaty is reserved for an agreement that is made by and with the Advice and Consent
of the Senate?
 that agreements not submitted to the Senate are known as executive agreements?
Treaties under U.S. Law
Some background first . . .
All treaties under U.S. law are created through this basic process.
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First, the Secretary of State authorizes negotiation.
Next, the U.S. representatives negotiate.
They agree on terms, and upon authorization of the Secretary of State, sign the treaty.
Then the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers the treaty and reports to the Senate.
The Senate considers and approves the treaty by a 2/3 majority.
Finally, the President proclaims the entry into force of the treaty.
Now how to find a treaty....
Besides using the Internet, how do you find out if a U.S. bilateral treaty exists? What if it's an older
treaty that's not on the Internet? And how do you get a citation?
The best place to start is Treaties in Force, an annual publication that lists and very briefly summarizes
all U.S. treaties and agreements still in force.
Research problem: finding a U.S. bilateral treaty
What if you were asked to find a bilateral treaty between the U.S. and Romania on agriculture?
First have a look in Treaties in Force
Research Tip: Treaties in Force is an index--a tool you use to find treaty citations, not the full text.
Another useful treaty index is United States Treaty Index.
Bilateral treaties are listed first in Treaties in Force, followed by multilateral treaties.
Let's have a closer look at the citations provided for the treaty.
U.S.T. = United States Treaties and Other International Agreements
T.I.A.S. = Treaties and Other International Acts Series
U.N.T.S. = United Nations Treaty Series
Research Tip: These three reporters are all official full text sources for treaties.
In Treaties in Force, Bilateral treaties are organized by alphabetically by country, then by topic.
From Treaties in Force, you found three citations for the treaty. Now you can look up the actual text of
the treaty in U.S.T.
This text is in volume 26, page 2486 of U.S.T.
More official sources for U.S. treaties
In addition to U.S.T. (1950 - present), there are several other official sources for the full-text of U.S.
treaties:
 Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States, 1776-1949 (often cited to as
Bevans)
 Statutes at Large (1776-1950) (cited to as Stat.)
 Treaties and Other International Acts Series (1946-present) (cited to as T.I.A.S.) This series is the
first official publication of new treaties and agreements (slip treaties). It is later bound in UST.
And some of the unofficial sources for U.S. treaties
Since the official sources are so slow to be published, most researchers rely on unofficial sources:
 Hein's United States Treaites and Other International Agreements Current Service (1990-present)
 Consolidated Treaties and International Agreements (1990-present) (often cited to as CTIA)
 TIARA - US Treaties and International Agreements (database)
 Lexis and Westlaw
Updating U.S.T. using Treaty Actions
Since U.S.T. is an annual publication, you'll need to update your work. To do this, check an online
publication of the U.S. State Department called
.
The following shows how you'd check to see if there are any changes to the status of the Romanian
agriculture treaty.
By using T.I.F., you were able ultimately to find the full-text of the Romanian agriculture treaty in U.S.T.
Now let’s look at the Department of State home page.
Select the Issues & Press link.
Select the A-Z Index link.
Select the T link to go to topics that start with T.
Select the Actions link.
Select 2006 Treaty Actions.
You arrive at the start of the update section for bilateral treaties. Scroll down the page to check if there
is anything for Romania.
As you can see, Romania is not listed under bilaterals. By checking here, you have verified that the
status of the U.S.-Romanian agricultural treaty has not changed.
Executive Agreements under U.S. Law
Some background first
All executive ageements under U.S. law are created through this basic process.
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First, the Secretary of State authorizes negotiations.
Next, U.S. representatives negotiate.
They agree upon terms, and upon authorization of the Secretary of State, sign the agreement.
Then the agreement enters into force.
Finally, the President transmits the agreement to Congress (pursuant to the Case-Zablocki Act).
Let's compare
A treaty is an international agreement that has received the Senate's advice and consent in a 2/3
majority vote. It's been ratified by the President.
An executive agreement is an international agreement entered into by the President that doesn't
require the advice and consent of the Senate.
The numbers, please
According to Robert E. Dalton in his chapter on the United States in National Treaty Law and Practice,
for the years 1986 through 2003 there were:
 314 treaties that received the advice and consent of the Senate; and
 5,149 executive agreements.
Official full-text sources for executive agreements
 United States Statutues at Large (1789 - 1950)
 Executive Agreement Series (1929 - 1946)
 Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) (1946 - present)
Some unofficial sources for executive agreements
You can find the text of executive agreements in a number of print and electronic sources. Some of the
most common are:
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Consolidated Treaties and International Agreements (C.T.I.A.) (1990 - present)
International Legal Materials (I.L.M.)
U.S. State Department website
U.S. Trade Representative's online trade agreements library
Lexis and Westlaw
Online topical collections of agreements, such as the U.N.'s extradition and judicial assistance
agreements or various trade agreement collections.
Finding tools
Frequently, you will find out about the existence of an executive agreement through reading secondary
sources or other materials. So then you can turn to one of the official or unoffical sources to locate the
text of the agreement.
But sometimes you just need to find out if an agreement exists at all, and you don't have any extra
information.
Then you might check some of these finding tools:
 Treaties in Force (T.I.F.). Despite the name, it lists executive agreements, too!
 A Guide to U.S. Treaties in Force. This is often used together with T.I.F.
 United States Treaty Index: 1776 - 1990 .
Bilateral Treaties to which the U.S. is Not a Party
Suggested resources
Finding bilateral treaties to which the U.S. is not a party can sometimes be challenging. You should also
note that bilateral treaties between non-English speaking countries are often not available in translation.
Check the official treaty series, statutory compilation, or official gazette of one of the country parties.
Some examples include United Kingdom Treaty Series or Australian Treaty Series. Some governments
make their treaties available online, such as the Australian Treaties Library.
More places to look
 International Legal Materials (ILM) usually only reprints important treaties.
 Use World Treaty Index or the United Nations Treaty Series Index for a citation to bilateral treaties.
The full text might be available in UNTS, which is available online.
 Compilations of documents from an international organization may provide information.
 International yearbooks (e.g. African Yearbook of International Law) or other international law
periodicals.
And if all else fails...pick up the phone
Phone calls to organizations, embassies, the Department of State's Office of Treaty Affairs, or the
United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Treaty Section, can sometimes be helpful.
Multilateral Treaties
Research problem: finding a multilateral treaty
What if you were asked to research the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)?
E.I.S.I.L. is a great free database to use to start your research for a multilateral treaty. EISIL organizes
primary materials in international law, and includes authoritative websites and helpful research guides.
Select the International Environmental Law link.
Select the Biodiversity & Protection of Ecosystems link.
The main link for the Convention on Biological Diversity will take you to an authoritative online
version of the text of the treaty. Select the More Information link under the Convention on Biological
Diversity link.
This "More Information" page includes basic treaty information such as conculsion and entry into force
date and a brief description of the treaty.
The Legal Citation information can help with Bluebooking!
What's the status of the CBD?
Once you've found the text of a multilateral treaty, the next step is checking the status. This includes
determining the state parties, the entry into force date and locating any declarations or reservations.
Some of this information is in EISIL. You can use the U.N. Treaty Collection to find the remaining
pieces.
From our database list, click United Nations Treaty Collection.
In the United NationsTreaty Collection database, select the Status of Multilateral Treaties link.
Select the Chapter XXVII link. (Chapter XXVII lists treaties about the environment.)
This section includes all of the environmental treaties that have been deposited with the U.N. SecretaryGeneral. Select the Convention on biological diversity link.
First you come to general background information on the treaty.
Determining the status of a treaty means finding out whether a treaty has entered into force or if a
country has ratified a treaty. This chart (farther down the page) shows the status information for the
Convention on Biological Diversity.
Afghanistan, for example, is a state party to the treaty and has legal obligations under the treaty,
because it signed the treaty on 12 June 1992 and ratified it on 19 September 2002.
Albania is also a state party to the treaty, but Albania is not one of the originial signatories to the CBD.
Nevertheless, Albania has legal obligations under the treaty.
Next is the status table.
The U.S. is a signatory to the CBD, but did not ratify the treaty. Thus, the U.S. has no legal obligations
under the treaty.
Finally, you come to information on reservations and declarations.
Both declarations and reservations to treaties deposited with the U.N. Secretary-General can be
found here.
Reservations and declarations provide very important pieces of information. If a country does not want
to be bound to a particular provision of an agreement, the country may issue a reservation or
declaration to limit its application. Locating this information can be more difficult than status information.
Locating declaration and reservation information for treaties that are not deposited with the U.N. can be
difficult. Some collections of treaties do provide this information, such as the European Treaty Series.
The official website of the CBD is also a source of status information for the treaty.
The "legislative history" of multilateral treaties
You may need to find information related to the negotiation history or treaty interpretation. This can be
loosely called the "legislative history" of a treaty.
For multilateral treaties, this treaty history is often called the travaux préparatoires or simply the
travaux.
According to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, the travaux can be used to interpret the
treaty. So finding the travaux can be an important part of treaty research.
In the language of the Vienna Convention Art. 32, the "preparatory work" is the same as the travaux.
Tracking the travaux
Tracking down travaux can be tricky! For starters, some treaty negotiations are never released to the
public. Almost all bilateral treaties fall into this category.
Before you go any further, check a library catalog to see if someone has already prepared a complete
legislative history of the treaty (for example, there is one on the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the
Child). If you find one, it will save you loads of work!
Next, identify the organization responsible for the treaty -- frequently this is the U.N. You'll need to
locate documents relating to the history of the treaty and these are mostly kept by the sponsoring
organization.
U.S. sources for treaty history
If you're looking for the history of a treaty to which the U.S. is a party, you can use a number of the
traditional legislative history tools. You'll be looking for government documents such as hearings,
reports and committee prints. Some of the most important are:
 Senate Treaty Documents & Senate Executive Reports (only available for treaties, not
agreements)
Unlike legislation, treaties can be held over from year to year in the Senate. Use the Senate volume of
the CCH Congressional Index to determine the status of treaties pending before the Senate.