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University of Wyoming

Treaties and International Law

 

I. Definitions.

A. International law "...consists of rules and principles of general application dealing with the conduct of states and of international organizations and with their relations inter se [between themselves], as well as with some of their relations with persons..."(Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law §101 (1987).

1. There is general agreement that Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice (59 Stat. 1055) accurately states the sources of international law; they are:

a. International conventions (i.e. international agreements);

b. International custom; and

c. "The general principles of law recognized by civilized nations."

2. "...[J]udicial decisions and the teachings of the most highly qualified publicists..." are recognized as "subsidiary means for the determination of rules of law."

B. "Treaty" is one of many terms used to describe an international agreement. An international agreement has been defined as "...an agreement among two or more states or international organizations that is intended to be legally binding and is governed by international law" (Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law §301 (1987)).

1.Other designations for an international agreement include: convention, agreement, protocol, covenant, act, exchange of notes, and memorandum of understanding.

2. In the U.S. the term treaty refers specifically to an international agreement that must receive the consent of 2/3 of the Senate in order to go into effect. (However, the term is most often used in its broadest sense; that is, as a synonym for international agreement.)

3. In the U.S., there are three forms of international agreement which do not require the consent of 2/3 of the Senate:

a. Congressional-Executive agreements;

b. Executive agreements pursuant to treaty; and

c. Sole executive agreements.

(See Restatement (Third) of Foreign Relations Law §303 (1987)).

 

II. Researching International Agreements of the United States.

A. Treaties in Force. To determine what international agreements are in effect for the U.S., use Treaties in Force (JX 235.9 .A33). Bilateral treaties are organized according to the country with which they are in force, subdivided by subject. Multilateral treaties are arranged by subject. In each case, only the names of the treaties and citations to them are given, not the text.

B. Modern Treaty Texts (1950--).

1. International agreements are first officially published in "slip" form (individual pamphlets) in the Treaties and other International Acts Series (TIAS) [JX 231 .A34]. Publication of international agreements in this series is about 10 years late.

2. The permanent, bound version of the international agreements of the U.S. is called the United States Treaties and Other International Agreements series (U.S.T.) [JX 231 .A36 1984]. It is over 20 years behind.

3. Fortunately, there are several alternative sources for recent U.S. treaties. Three of them available in the Law Library are:

a. International Legal Materials (S-W-21)--selectively prints important international legal documents involving any nation, not only the U.S. There is a subject index in each issue and a cumulative index for each year;

b. "Treaty Documents" (sent by the President to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee)--contain the text of treaties recently signed by the president, along with explanations of the treaty and reasons the President believes the Senate should give its advice and consent. The Law Library has these documents on microfiche in the cabinets at the back of the main floor. To find a particular document, use the CIS Abstracts for the year in which it was transmitted to the Senate. (This set is adjacent to the microfiche cabinets (M-C-9)). Treaty Documents are listed under the heading "S385". The listing for each document gives a Superintendent of Documents classification number (starting with Y1.1/4; e.g., Y1.1/4:104-23 is Treaty Document number 23 from the 104th Congress) under which it is filed in the microfiche cabinets.

c. Westlaw's USTREATIES database--contains recent US treaties from three sources--TIAS, beginning with no.10869 (1979); Senate Treaty Documents, beginning with the 103d Congress (1993), and State Department documents, beginning with no.90-1 (1990).

4. Indexes to modern treaty texts.

a. As noted above, Treaties in Force functions as an index to all U.S. treaties that are still effective.

b. In addition, United States Treaty Index: 1776-1990 Consolidation (JX 231 .U58 1995-) indexes all treaties , with in force or not, up to close to the present date.

5. The latest information about treaties and proposed treaties.

a. National newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, often have articles about treaties in the draft stage or those being considered by the Senate. The law library has both of these newspapers in the newspaper rack at the entrance to the main reading room and keeps back issues for several weeks in the work room. (Ask for these at the circulation desk.)

b. The monthly Department of State publication, Dispatch (S-W-12), has a "Treaty Actions" section that contains very current information about treaties that the U.S. has just entered into and about multilateral treaties of the U.S. to which other states have recently acceded.

C. Older Treaty Texts (before 1950).

1. From 1845-1949 treaties were published in the Statutes at Large (S-2-2). Treaties with Indian tribes are collected in volume 7 and other U.S. treaties created before 1845 were published in volume 8. (Executive agreements were not published in the Statutes at Large until 1931.)

2. Another frequently cited source for pre-1950 treaties and executive agreements is Bevans, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949 (JX 236 .A5 1968-1976).

3. Another source for U.S. treaties with Indian tribes is Kappler, Indian Treaties, 1778-1883 (KF 8203 .A1 .N3 1972).

4. Indexes to older treaty texts.

a. Bevans, noted in point 2 above, includes an index.

b. United States Treaty Index: 1776-1990 Consolidation covers older treaties.

D. Unperfected Treaties. Treaties that are signed by the President but are never given the advice and consent of the Senate are known as unperfected treaties. The only compilation of these is Wiktor, Unperfected Treaties of the United States, 1776-1976 (JX 236 1776 .U56 1976-1994).

 

III. Researching the international agreements of other countries. The Law Library does not have many treaties to which the U.S. is not a party. These are contained in sets such as: Consolidated Treaty Series; League of Nations Treaty Series; and United Nations Treaty Series.

A. However, as noted above, International Legal Materials (S-W-21) selectively prints important treaties of countries other than the U.S.

B. In addition, some of the international agreements of foreign countries are available online. See point IV below for information about online sources for international agreements.

 

IV. Treaty information online. (Remember that sources of online information change more frequently than the traditional sources.)

A. Proprietary databases.

1. Lexis--European Union treaties are available by selecting Area of Law by topic, International Law, and then Treaties and International Agreements; many tax treaties are found here, and the GATT file has the text of the Uruguay round modifications of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

2. Westlaw--as noted above, the USTREATIES database contains the text of current U.S. treaties from official sources.

B. Internet/World Wide Web.

1. The law library's research guide "WWW Popular Legal Links" provides URLs for several Web sites that contain treaty texts or links to other sites that have treaty texts.

2. One site not mentioned in the guide noted above is the Department of State's "Foreign Affairs Network"--http://www.state.gov.

3.  Additional sites include:

 

V. Information about international law in general.

A. Digests of U.S. Practice. [Explanations of international law based on the practice of states; recent digests cover only the U.S. perspective and practice.]

1. Wharton, International Law Digest (2d ed., 1887) (JX 237 .W5 1887).

2. Moore, International Law Digest (1906) (JX 237 .M7 1906).

3. Hackworth, Digest of International Law (1940-1944) JX 237 .H3 1940-1944).

4. Whiteman, Digest of International Law (1963-1973) (JX 237 .W55 1963-1973).

5. Cumulative Digest of United States Practice in International Law (1974--) (JX 237 .D5 1981-1988) [Updated 4x per year in "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International law" section of the American Journal of International Law (S-W-2 & S-W-3).

B. Judicial decisions on international law.

1. Hudson, World Court Reports (1969) JX 1971.5 .A63 1969) [Permanent Court of International Justice opinions, 1922-1942].

2. International Law Reports (covering 1919--) (JX 1971 .L38) [English language versions of the decisions from various countries concerning international law.

2. International Court of Justice, Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders (1947--) (JX 1971.6 .A244 1947-) [picks up from World Court Reports]

C. Dictionaries and encyclopedias.

1. Fox, Dictionary of International & Comparative Law (Reference: KZ 1161 .F69 1997).

2. Parry, et. al., Encylopaedic Dictionary of International Law (Reference: KZ 1161 .P39 2004).

3. Bernhardt, Encyclopedia of Public International Law (JX 1226 .E5 1992).

D. Treatises.

1. Buergenthal, Public International Law in a Nutshell (2d ed., 1990) (Reserve, JX 3091 .B84 2002).

2. Janis, An Introduction to International Law (3d ed., 1999) (KZ 3140 .J36 .A35 2003).

3. Jennings, Oppenheim's International Law (9th ed., 1992--). (JX 3264 .I6 1992).

4. Schachter, International Law in Theory and Practice (1991) (JX 3091 .S264 1991).

5. Check the online catalog for other books on international law.

E. Restatement. Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States (1987)(Reference, M-C-2). [Deals with "international law as it applies to the United States and...domestic law that has substantial significance for the foreign relations of the United States or has other substantial international consequences."]

F. Journal articles. Use LegalTrac, available on Legalferret from the Articles and Reference Materials button; Current Law Index (S-N-33 ) or the Index to Legal Periodical and Books (S-N-33) to find law review articles on international law topics.

G. Research guides.

1. Mersky, Fundamentals of Legal Research (8th ed., 2002) (Reserve, KF 240 .J32 2002)

2. Schaffer, Contemporary Practice of Public International Law ( 1997) (KZ 1234 .C66 1997) [Detailed guide to research on international law.]

 

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