Quick Retrieval of the Text of Most Modern Multilateral Treaties
HeinOnline has scanned most of the major multilateral treaty publications, allowing you to quickly retrieve most international treaties by citation using the:
- HeinOnline World Treaty IndexTo retrieve a multilateral or non-U.S. treaty, set the dropdown to "Citation" and then input the treaty's citation, such as 14 UNTS 185, 100 L.N.T.S. 137, or 32 ILM 289. Note that some citations, especially to L.N.T.S., can be punctuation sensitive- e.g. 100 L.N.T.S. 137 works but 100 LNTS 137 does not.
Additionally, the University of Minnesota maintains a guide to:
- Frequently-Cited Treaties & Other International InstrumentsFor each treaty, this guide provides citations to all of the Bluebook-approved sources for the treaty and links any available online PDF versions. Many PDFs are free and most of the remaining PDFs can be accessed by deleting http://login.ezproxy.lib.umn.edu/ at the beginning of the URL and replacing it with http://etron.lls.edu:2048/
Text and Status of Treaties Deposited with the U.N. and League of Nations (U.N.T.S., L.N.T.S., and M.T.D.S.G.)
Generally, treaties designate a depository- an organization or government responsible for keeping the text of the treaty and tracking which countries have signed, ratified, and made reservations to the treaty.
Virtually all modern treaties designate the United Nations as a depository. Additionally, even if a treaty does not formally designate the U.N. as a depository, Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations requires all member nations to register all treaties with the United Nations. Article 18 of the Covenenant of the League of Nations (the U.N.'s precursor) also required all member nations to register all treaties with the League of Nations.
Accordingly, the overwhelming majority of modern treaties are published in:
- United Nations Treaty Series (U.N.T.S.)
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Call Number: Main Stacks KZ172 .T74Publication Date: 1946-currentFull text PDFs of treaties registered with the United Nations. Also provides full text PDFs of all notifications by countries signing the treaty, ratifying or otherwise agreeing to be bound by the treaty, and making reservations or declarations about the treaty. - League of Nations Treaty Series (L.N.T.S.)
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Call Number: Main Stacks KZ170.5 .T74Publication Date: 1920-1946Full text PDFs of treaties registered with the U.N.'s precusor, the League of Nations. Also provides full text PDFs of all notifications by countries signing the treaty, ratifying or otherwise agreeing to be bound by the treaty, and making reservations or declarations about the treaty.
The U.N. also publishes a convenient summary of the current status of each multilateral treaty in:
- Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General
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Call Number: Main Stacks KZ171 .M86Status of all treaties deposited with the U.N. For each country, provides the date of signature, the date of ratification or other consent to be bound, and the text of any reservations or declarations.
Text and Status of Historical Multilateral and Non-U.S. Treaties (Parry, Martens, and Dumont)
A few early international law scholars undertook projects to compile print collections of historical multilateral treaties. Each collection is generally referred to by the name of its compiler (e.g. Parry, Martens, and Dumont.)
The most comprehensive collection is Parry, available in print at the library:
- Consolidated Treaty Series byCall Number: Main Stacks KZ120 .P35 1969231 volume compilation of multilateral treaties published from 1648 to 1919, accompanied by any available English or French translations or summaries.
Parry was explicitly intended as a replacement and update for two earlier treaty series (Martens and Dumont) which were not as complete and contained treaties primarily in their original language or French. Complete scans of both Martens and Dumont are available on HeinOnline:
- Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens byCall Number: OnlineNon-comprehensive collection of treaties dating from 800 to 1739, mostly in their original language.
- Nouveau Recueil de Traites d'Alliance, de Paix, de Treve, de Neutralite, de Commerce, de Limites, d'Echange Etc. byCall Number: OnlinePublication Date: 1808-1839
- Nouveau Recueil General de Traites et Autres Actes Relatifs aux Rapports de Droit International byCall Number: OnlinePublication Date: 1876-1908
- Nouveau Recueil General de Traites et Autres Actes Relatifs aux Rapports de Droit International byCall Number: OnlinePublication Date: 1909-1943