Just as statutes are the main source of modern domestic law, treaties have become the key source of law in international law. The first subsection of Article 38 of the ICJ Statute specifically mentions "international conventions" expressly creating the law in an area between or among the party states. Section 102 (3) of the Restatement reads in part "(3) International agreements create law for the states parties thereto ....."
The definition of "treaty" in the OED reads:"A contract between two or more states, relating to peace, truce, alliance, commerce, or other international relation; also, the document embodying such contract, in modern usage formally signed by plenipotentiaries appointed by the government of each state."The third Restatement’s definition reads:§ 301 DEFINITIONS
As used in this Restatement, (1) "international agreement" means an agreement between two or more states or international organizations that is intended to be legally binding and is governed by international law;"This definition shies away from using the word "treaty" since it is intended to cover both treaties and "executive agreements" which are less formal but equally binding. There are a whole range of words that are used for agreements that are meant to have the force of law. Although treaty is the most common, others include Agreement, Charter, Convention, Covenant, and Protocol. Whatever particular designation is used, all have the same legal status.Publication of U.S. Treaties
The treaty-making process is highly analogous to the way contracts are arrived at in private law. The process involves negotiation, a signing by representatives of the parties, and ratification by the appropriate national bodies. In an ideal world, this is followed by publication of the text, but publication of treaties is far less regularized than publication of standard domestic law statutes.
There are two main classes of treaties: bilateral and multilateral, ie., with two parties or many parties. Double taxation and extradition treaties are usually bilateral, involving only two countries. Multilateral treaties are used to solve global or regional problems and to create global or regional institutions.
It is important to remember that treaties do NOT come into force when they are signed even though date of signing is an important citation element. Most treaties have a clause within them as to when they come into effect. This may be the date of ratification, the date parties have enacted required follow-on legislation, or, with multilateral treaties, the date when a set number of parties have ratified it. Parties who join a multilateral treaty which is already in force for some countries specify the date it comes into effect for themselves.
A general treatise on treaties is Anthony Aust's Modern Treaty Law and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2000), found on the second floor at JX4160 Au735 2000. Another useful recent book on the subject is the ASIL produced National treaty law and practice (Leiden ; Boston : M. Nijhoff, KZ1301 .N38 2005, 4th Floor).
The governmental publication of treaties in the US is somewhat irregular. Often the text first appears as a "Treaty Document", distributed when the President submits the treaty to the Senate for ratification. For multilateral treaties that are the result of many years negotiation, the draft treaty is often available from the body that is coordinating the development of the final text. In the early years of the republic, treaties appeared as part of the Statutes-at-Large, but that was not regular. Several compiled editions of treaties were published in the early part of the 20th century, culminating in Bevans’ Treaties and other international agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949, (2nd Floor, JX236 1968).Treaty Citation
In the late 1940's the federal government developed a systematic way of publishing treaties and executive agreements that lasted until the grim budget cuts of the early 1980's. This involved initial publication in slip form known as TIAS, which stands for Treaties and other International Acts Series . These are compiled and republished as chronological hard-bound volumes known as UST, or United States treaties and international agreements, (2nd Floor, JX235.9 A5). This system still exists in a withered, almost parodic, form, with texts published in a desultory manner. The most recent volume of the UST was received by the Diamond Law Library in April, 1998 and covered treaties ratified in 1984. We have received some TIAS pamphlets in 2000, covering agreements from 1995, but there are many in the numbered series which have not been published, going back to the 1980's.
As mentioned above, often treaty texts can be found as a Congressional "Treaty Document". These are published by the Government Printing Office (GPO) in support of the ratification process during the period between the President's transmission of the treaty for ratification and the actual ratification by the Senate. This format was adopted in 1980 and the paper versions are found at on the 2nd floor at JX231 Se54. Before that they were part of a set known as the Senate "Executive Document" series ( JX231 Se53). The digital version of these texts since 1995 can be found through the GPO website at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/cdocuments/index.html .
NOTA BENE: Since this guide was originally written, a similar guide focusing only on treaty research was created by Simon Canick and was recently updated by Beth Williams. It is found at http://library.law.columbia.edu/guides/Guide_to_Treaty_Research. That guide supersedes my original text, most of which has been deleted as of August, 2007.
The basic multilateral form is: (1) name of the treaty, (2) the full date of the signing, (3) a citation to where it is published.Approaching Treaty Material
NB: While the BlueBook rules require only one citation to a source, if that source is not a common one, it is very useful to the reader if you include a parallel citation to a more commonly available series, such as UNTS or TIAS.
Many treaties, especially older ones, are known by the place they were signed. The "Treaty of Rome" for example, founded the European Economic Community in the 1950's. Other multilateral treaties are commonly known through acronyms. An example is CITES, for the "Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species".
The details of the rules and the hierarchies of publications to be cited are found in Rule 21 of the BlueBook .
From the researcher’s point of view, the first question you need to ask yourself in analyzing a situation is "Is there a treaty or group of treaties which covers this subject?" If yes, the next questions are related to locating the actual text itself and ascertaining its status.
