Treaties

The United States enters into agreements with other nations on topics such as the ozone layer of the atmosphere, the future of Antarctica, nuclear proliferation, taxes, and copyrights, to name a few. International agreements can be in the form of "treaties", "executive agreements", or other more informal agreements. The president can enter into certain international agreements on his authority alone. These are referred to as executive agreements. Treaties must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senators present. Unfortunately treaties are often not printed until several years after they are ratified and have gone into effect. What follows is a partial list of sources useful in tracking down treaty information.

TREATY TEXTS
Treaties and Other International Acts Series - (TIAS) - S 9.10: - New Stacks, 3rd floor
These "slip treaties" are the first printing we get from the Government Printing Office of a treaty. Unfortunately slip treaties are published as much as several years after a treaty is ratified by the Senate. A citation to a slip treaty would appear as TIAS 4048, which would be filed as S 9.10:4048 in the New Stacks on the 3rd floor.

US Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) - S 9.12: - New Stacks, 3rd floor
This annual publication includes the full texts of treaties to which the U.S. is a party from 1950 to the present. A citation such as 29 UST 5756 refers to volume 29 page 5756 of this work.

Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949 (Bevans)
S 9.12/2: - New Stacks, 3rd floor
This set compiles the texts of treaties and agreements prior to 1949, and renders it unnecessary to look up early treaties in the Statutes at Large (the compilation of laws of the U.S.) where they were originally printed. A citation to Bevans appears as 10 Bevans 841, which is a citation to volume 10 page 841. Citations to early treaties and agreements may also be given to the Statutes at Large, in which case the citation would appear as 56 Stat. 1545.

Treaty Documents - Y1.1/4: - New Stacks, 3rd floor
In order for the Senate to consider a treaty the President must transmit the text to the Senate. This is done in the form of a "treaty document" which contains a brief message with supporting materials for the treaty and the complete text of the, as yet, unratified treaty. Prior to the 97th Congress these executive documents were given letters and the number of the Congress and session - Executive S, 81-1 (Y1.81/1:S). With the 97th Congress these treaty documents are numbered like other documents - Y1.1/4:97-6.

United Nations Treaty Series - UN 5/T 71/no. - Ivy Stacks & Ivy Annex
The official title of this large set is Treaty Series: Treaties and International Agreements Registered or Filed and Recorded with the Secretariat of the United Nations . It prints all international agreements and treaties, whether bilateral or multilateral, which are filed with the United Nations. Most agreements are eventually filed with the UN. As with other compilations of treaties this source prints treaties substantially after they go into effect, for example, the 1982 volume prints 1977 agreements. A citation to this set appears as 701 UNTS 277 (volume 701, page 277). This set is important because the United States does not have to be a party to the treaty for it to be printed here.

United Nations Treaty Collection
This UN internet site Includes the following types of UN treaty information:
· Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General
· The United Nations Treaty Series
· Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral Treaties
· Titles of the Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General in the UN official languages
· Summary of Practice of the Secretary-General as Depositary of MultilateralTreaties
· Treaty Handbook
· United Nations Treaty Series Cumulative Index

League of Nations Treaty Series - LN V.164 - Microfilm Cabinet, Gov. Info. Reading Room
Alderman owns the League of Nations Treaty Series in microfilm. It contains some treaties which pre-date the League's formation. A citation to it appears as 90 LNTS 171.

Department of State Home Page
Information about new treaties as well as possibly the text of such treaties will be included here.
Treaty Actions - US treaty actions back to 1997 are available at this site.

INDEXES TO TREATIES
Treaties In Force -- S 9.14: --Post 9, Gov. Info Reading Room
Available both on the web and in print, this annual volume lists multilateral and bilateral treaties to which the U.S. is a party. The multilateral (between more than two countries) treaties are listed by broad subject category, while the bilateral treaties are listed by country. Any treaty which is still in effect is included, so it lists some very old treaties. Citations are to the resources listed on this sheet and other treaty compilations.

Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General - UN1/M91/yr. - Post 9, Reading Room
This listing of the status of current multilateral treaties is arranged by broad subject chapters, i.e. Freedom of Information. There is also an index. Current signatories are listed as is the cite to the printed treaty, usually either the UN Treaty Series (UN5/T71/no.) or a General Assembly Official Record Supplement.

LexisNexis Congressional - Indexes Senate treaty documents which often contain the texts of treaties.

World Treaty Index -- Aisle 6, Gov. Info. Reading Room
This 5 volume set indexes not only treaties to which the U.S. is a party but any treaty that the compilers could find. It indexes bilateral treaties between countries, for instance a fishing treaty between Norway and Finland. No other index we have indexes the bilateral treaties between other countries.

Encyclopedia of the United Nations - Post 9, Gov. Info. Reading Room
This work is a good place to begin to research a treaty that you don't know much about. It will occasionally even reprint the entire treaty.

FINDING THE TEXT OF A RECENT OR UNRATIFIED TREATY
Finding the text of a newly ratified or unratified treaty can be difficult, but is generally possible. Often the Senate hearings on the treaty, usually before the Committee on Foreign Relations, will contain a copy of the text of the treaty. These can be searched using LexisNexis Congressional. For example, the hearing entitled ABM Treaty and the Constitution (Y 4.F 76/2:S.Hrg.100-110) contains the complete text of the ABM treaty.

The Senate also issues what are known as "treaty documents". These are usually issued for any new treaties being considered. The treaty on the elimination of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles between the U.S. and the Soviet Union first appeared in Treaty Document 100-11 (Y 1.1/4:100-11). These are later reprinted as a separate volume of the Serial Set (Y1.1/2:). This treaty is also available in a Senate executive report on the treaty. The report (Y1.1/6:100-15) contains not only the text of the treaty, but also background information.

In summary, the texts of recent or unratified treaties can usually be found in any of the following types of Congressional publications.

Hearings before the Committees on Foreign Relations - Y 4.F 76/1: and Y4.F76/2:
Treaty Documents - Y1.1/4: (Prior to the 97th Congress - Y1.Cong./Sess.:letter (Y1.81/1:S)
Senate Executive Reports - Y1.1/6:
Serial Set - Y1.1/2: - since the 97th Congress, reprints all treaty documents.
Early Treaty Documents - Y1.Cong./Sess:letter (i.e., Y 1.89/2:S)

These Congressional publications are all indexed in LexisNexis Congressional