Treaties

Treaties may be defined as an international agreement concluded between States, governed by international law.  They may also be referred to as conventions, international agreements, covenants, international instruments, charters and protocols.

Treaties may be bi–lateral (between two States) or multi–lateral (covering more than two States).

• Research Guides
|
• Finding Treaties
|
• Treaty Collections
|
• Updates to Treaties
|
• United Nations Resolutions

Research Guides

These online guides provide instruction in treaty law research with links to online treaty websites.

• Abbreviations for treaty series – a brief guide by the Harvard Law Library
• Australian and International Treaty Making Information Kit on AustLII
• Research Guide to the WTO and GATT New York University School of Law
• Treaties (ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law)
• United Nations Treaty Reference Guide

Finding Treaties

The first step to locating a treaty is getting the citation to a treaty. The following resources are treaty indexes and lists which provide treaty citation information.

• Australian treaty list – lists all treaties to which Australia is a party.
• Cumulative Index to the United Nations Treaty Series – lists UN treaties chronologically, by country, organisation and subject.
• EISIL (American Society of International Law) – an excellent source to verify treaty citations and also provides links to the authoritative texts of treaties.

The following are print indexes held in the International Law Collection (Ground Floor, Stack G13).

• Bowman & Harris. Multilateral treaties : index and current status
• Rohn. World treaty index (1900-1980)
• Treaties in force
• Wiktor. Multilateral treaty calendar

Treaty Collections

General Collections

• Australian Treaties Library (AustLII) – created by DFAT, this database hosted by AustLII provides the full-text of treaties to which Australia is a party. Also includes, indexes and explanatory material.
• Australian Treaties Database (Australia. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) – a current database of Australian treaty information, including treaty implementation details.
• United Nations Treaty Collection – the United Nations Treaty Collection is a database containing the full text of over 40,000 bilateral or multilateral treaties registered with the United Nations. The database has a basic search facility (title keyword or popular name), or advanced search (which includes subject, participants, date or registration number).

Westlaw Treaty Collections

• United States Treaties – USTREATIES file
• United Kingdom human rights treaties – UKHR-TREATIES
• European Union treaties – EU-TREAIES

LexisNexis Treaty Collections

Select the International Law tab to get to the Treaties files (screenshot illustration below).

Recent Treaties

International Legal Materials (via LexisNexis ILMfile; via Westlaw ILM file)
ILM is a useful source for recent international treaties that are not yet published in conventional sources such as the UNTS.

Subject Collections

• Constitutions, Treaties and Declarations (Keele University, UK)
• Multilaterals Project
• Reference Guide to the Geneva Conventions (conventions on the laws of war)

Updates to Treaties

There are a number of good resources to assist you with updating your treaty information (i.e. signatures, ratifications, reservations, declarations and objections).

• Multilateral treaties deposited with the Secretary–General
  This publication consolidates all information on treaty actions together with the full text of declarations and reservations. It is organized into subject groupings with part I relating to UN treaties and Part II concerning League of Nations treaties.
  It is available: in print at Stack 30 AND online via the United Nations Treaty Collection.

• Australian Treaty List – Monthly Updates
  This is a list compiled by the Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Australian treaty actions.

Resolutions of the United Nations

• United Nations. General Assembly. Resolutions and Sessions. 1st (1946)+
  United Nations. General Assembly. Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly (ed. Djonovich)
  v.1-24 (1946-1986)
  United Nations. Security Council. Resolutions and decisions of the Security Council (ed. Djonovich)
  v.1-11 (1946-1979)