Researching International and Foreign Law
Bluebook R.20 and R.21 and Tables T.2, T.3, T.4, etc.

TIPS and STRATEGIES:

1: For cite-checking: Run a search in the law review file of WESTLAW or LexisNexis using part of a hard-to-find source to see if another article has already cited it.

2: Check out the all-PDF law reviews, official U.S. sources and treaty sources in HeinOnLine--especially the Foreign & International Law Resources Database.

3: Can't find it in this guide?

• Try the NYU Law Library Guide to Foreign and International Databases <www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html>

•  Search library catalogs such as Julius, using the name of an international organization, court, country, or government body, in an author, subject or keyword search. 

4: Check the ASIL International Law in Brief <www.asil.org/ilib/ilibarch.htm> for texts of recent international law cases, U.N. resolutions and other international law documents. 

5. Use Journal Titles (from the Law Library homepage) to find full-text journals in print, electronic, and/or PDF (excluding LexisNexis and Bobst print and microfiche journals).


ABBREVIATIONS  You may need the full title behind an abbreviation before you can search for the source in a library catalog. Try the following:

•  your manuscript text and surrounding footnotes

•  Bluebook Tables

•   Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations  <www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/>

•  Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations: A Reference Guide for Attorneys, Legal Secretaries, Paralegals, and Law Students. Prince's 5th Edition. Mary Miles Prince. Buffalo, N.Y.: W.S. Hein, 2001. 
Circ Desk and Reference  KF246 .B46 2001

•   World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. Igor I. Kavass, Mary Miles Prince. eds. [Buffalo, N.Y.]: W. S. Hein, 1991-.
Reference  K89 .K38 1991

•  Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations. Donald Raistrick.  2nd ed. London; New York: Bowker-Saur, 1993. 
Reference  KD400 .R35 1993

•  Noble's Revised International Guide to the Law Reports. Scott Noble. Etobicoke, Ont.: Nicol Island Pub., 2002. 
Reference  K89 .N63 2002

CITATION MANUALS

•   Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations. Published by the New York University Journal of International Law and Politics.

DICTIONARIES and ENCYCLOPEDIAS

•   Encyclopedia of Public International Law. Published under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law; under the direction of Rudolf Bernhardt; assistant general editor, Peter Macalister-Smith
Consolidated library ed. Amsterdam; New York: North-Holland, 1992-2003. 5 vols.  Reference  KZ1160 .E53 1992

•  International Law: A Dictionary. Boleslaw A. Boczek. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2005.  Reference  KZ1161 .B63 2005
See also the earlier The International Law Dictionary. Robert L. Bledsoe and Boleslaw A. Boczek.  Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1987. Compact Shelves  JX1226 B57 1987

•   Dictionary of International and Comparative Law. James R. Fox. 3rd ed. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, 2003.
Reference  KZ1161 .F69 2003

•   Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law. Ed. John P. Grant and J. Craig Barker. 2nd ed. New York: Oceana Publications, Inc., 2004. Reference  KZ1161 .P37 2004

•  The Oxford Companion to Law. David M. Walker. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Reference   K48 .W34 1980

•  Who's Who in Public International Law. With a foreword by Elihu Lauterpacht. Cambridge, UK: Crestwall Ltd., 2007-.
ON ORDER

•  Yearbook of the United Nations, 1947-. Not an encyclopedia per se, but if you know the approximate year when a UN-related event took place, this is a good place to situate it in UN history  and get citations to a few major resolutions and documents.
Compact Shelves JX1977 A37 Y4

•  Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Edmund Jan Osmacyzk; edited by Anthony Mango. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2003. 4 vols.
Reference  KZ4968 .O86 2003

•  United Nations: Law, Policies, and Practice. Ed. Rudiger Wolfrum. New, rev. English ed. Dordrecht; Boston: M. Nijhoff; Munchen: C.H. Beck, 1995. 2 vols.
Reference  JX1977 .A38 1995

•  A Concise Encyclopedia of the United Nations. Ed. Helmut
Volger. (Lexikon der Vereinten Nationen. English.) The Hague; New York: Kluwer Law International, 2002.
Reference   KZ4968 .L4913 2002

•  The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations. Cathal J. Nolan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Pub., 2002. 4 vols.
Reference   JZ1160 .N65 2002

•  International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law.  Tubingen: Mohr; New York: Oceana, 1971-
Reference   K530 .I57 1973

•  Elger Encyclopedia of Comparative Law. Ed. Jan M. Smits.  Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Pub., 2006.  Reserve  K48 .E42 2006

•  A selection of foreign language dictionaries is kept at the Reference Desk.
 

TREATISES (Books)

Selected Treatises:

•   Bowett's Law of International Institutions. Philippe Sands and Pierre Klein. 5th ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2001.
Reserve  KZ4850 .B69 2001

•  The Law of Nations: An Introduction to the International Law of Peace. J.L. Brierly. 6th ed. Ed. Sir Humphrey Waldock. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.
Reserve and Compact Shelves  JX3225 B85 1963

•   Principles of Public International Law. Ian Brownlie. 6th ed.
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Reserve  KZ3225.B76 A37 2003

•  Public International Law in a Nutshell. Thomas Buergenthal,
Sean D. Murphy. 4th ed. St. Paul, MN: Thomson/West, 2007.
Circ  KZ3092 .B84 2007

•  An Introduction to International Law. Mark W. Janis. 4th ed.
New York: Aspen Publishers, 2003.
Reserve  KZ3140.J36 A35 2003

•  Akehurst's Modern Introduction to International Law. 7th rev. ed. Peter Malanczuk. London; New York: Routledge, 1997. 
Reserve KZ1242 .M35 1997 (8th ed ON ORDER, not yet published)

•  Oppenheim's International Law. 9th ed. Robert Jennings and Arthur Watts. Harlow, Essex, England : Longman, 1992-. Vol 1, pt.1 and vol. 1, pts. 2-4.  Circ  JX3264 I61 1992

•  International Law. Malcolm Shaw. 5th ed. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Reserve  KZ3275 .S53 2003

To find other books, search Julius, other library catalogs, and mega-catalogs such as RLG Union Catalog (Research Libraries Group) and OCLC FirstSearch (Worldcat). Start with keywords. To expand your search, use the subject headings for the books that you find.  
 

JOURNALS AND LAW REVIEWS 

•  To identify articles on your topic, use the Article Finder on the Law Library home page.

Hein Online has searchable PDFs of U.S. laws reviews starting with volume 1.

JSTOR is especially good for interdisciplinary research because you can combine groups of subject journals to search,  e.g., law, political science and history. 

Index to Legal Periodicals covers U.S. and U.K. law reviews, 1918-1980, and 1981-.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, 1985-.  A multilingual index of articles and book reviews, etc., published worldwide and covering international (public and private), comparative, and municipal law of countries other than the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia.

For newspapers and non-legal journals, also use Proquest Direct.

•  Many of the same article finders, and others such as PAIS,  Public Affairs Information Service, are accessible via Bobst Library>articles via databases>Databases by Title or Subject.
 
•  WESTLAW and LexisNexis do not cover all the journals covered by the Article Finder, generally do not have PDFs and do not cover early years for many journals. You must be a student, faculty or staff member of the NYU Law School to obtain passwords to WESTLAW and LexisNexis.

•  If you do not have a LexisNexis or WESTLAW password, use LexisNexis Academic. The path is Law Library home page  >Indexes & Databases, alphabetical to L... to LexisNexis Academic, then choose Legal Research>Law Reviews. Or, go through Bobst Library>articles via databases>Databases by Title.

•  Legal Journals Index (LJI in WESTLAW, 1986-) abstracts  over 430 English-language periodicals published in the UK and Europe or pertaining to the law of the EU and EU member states. It includes journals not covered by the full-text journals in WESTLAW and LexisNexis, including some industry publications.  

•  EJIL European Journal of International Law  <www.ejil.org/index.html>
Full-text of earlier volumes is available online (Archive), along with one article and abstracts of other articles from the current issue. The website also offers searchable books reviews from EJIL (Archive), a discussion list, links to related websites, and a "Current Developments" section that reports on recent developments in international law fora.

• RAVE  <www.jura.uni-duesseldorf.de/rave/e/englhome.asp>  Citations to recent decisions and articles in public international law and European law starting with 1995, with links to full text where available.

•  Public International Law: A Current Bibliography of Books and Articles. Compiled by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law. Berlin; New York: Springer-Verlag, 1975-  Compact Shelves  JX1226 P72
Based upon evaluation of over 1400 journals, yearbook and festschriften. Also lists books newly acquired by the Max Planck Institute library.

You can also search articles since 1996 indexed by the Max Planck Institute library in the fields of public international law, comparative law and municipal law at <http://www.mpil.de/ww/en/pub/library/catalogues_databases/doc_of_articles.cfm>

• A Bibliography on Foreign and Comparative Law. Compiled and Annotated by Charles Szladits. New York: Parker School of Foreign and Comparative Law, Columbia University in the city of New York: Distributed by Oceana Publications, 1955-.  B1 K38 .B53

•  When you have a list of articles and need to find the journals, use Journal Titles from Law Library home page. These include html, WESTLAW (if you have a password), PDFs, abstracts, and hardcopy journals in the Law Library, but not LexisNexis or Bobst print or microform journals. NOTE: Search the Journal title, NOT the article title. If you don't find the journal through Journal Titles, try LexisNexis and BobCat. Then consult the Reference Desk about visiting another local library or requesting an interlibrary loan through your home library (Law Library, Bobst Library, etc.).
 

RESEARCH GUIDES AND LINKS

• New York University Law Library Guide to Foreign and International Legal Databases <www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/index.html>
Treaties, human rights, international trade, international organizations, European Union, World Trade Organization, foreign (non-U.S) law, international criminal law (international criminal tribunals), international law databases (including Foreign Relations of the United States), etc.

• ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law <www.asil.org/resource/home.htm>

• EISIL, the American Society of International Law Electronic Information System for International Law  <www.asil.org/system/eisil.htm> Treaty texts with citations, dates, etc.; other primary document texts; websites; and research guides. To get started, click on "Search EISIL."

•  Guide to International Legal Research. The George Washington University Law School International Law Review. LexisNexis, 2006.
Reserve  KZ1234 .G35

•  Go to GlobaLex <www.nyulawglobal.com/index.htm> and LLRX.com <www.llrx.com> for an expert research guide on an international organization or the law of a foreign jurisdiction.

TREATIES   Bluebook R. 21.4 and Table T.4 
Article 38(1)(a) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice states:

The Court, whose function it is to decide in accordance with international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:

a. international conventions, whether general or particular, establishing rules expressly recognized by the contesting states

General introductions:

Aust, Anthony. Modern Treaty Law and Practice. 2d ed. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007. 
Reserve and Compact Shelves KZ1301 A93 2007

ASIL guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: Treaties by Jill McC. Watson. <www.asil.org/resource/treaty1.htm>

Travaux préparatoires Selected sources:

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties:

•  Analytical Guide to the Work of the International Law Commission, 1949-1997. A New York: United Nations, 1998.  <http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/gfra.htm> For links to ILC reports, ILC Yearbooks, reports of the Special Rapporteurs and other ILC materials on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, or another topic,  choose the appropriate link from the outline of topics that have been addressed by the ILC. 
Reserve  KZ1287.U55 A53x 1998

•   Rosenne, Shabtai. The Law of Treaties: A Guide to the Legislative History of the
Vienna Convention. Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff; Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.: Oceana Publications, 1970. Contains the 1966 Draft Articles and the trilingual text of each article, followed by cites to the reports of the Special Rapporteurs, comments in the Sixth Committee, comments of governments, Conference documents, etc. Compact  JX4165 R67
 

United States Treaties
United Nations and League of Nations Treaties
Unofficial treaty sources--General
Finding other treaties

SHORT CUTS TO TREATIES...
•  University of Minnesota Law Library: Frequently-Cited Treaties and Other International Instruments <www.law.umn.edu/library/pathfinders/most-cited.html>
Provides U.N., U.S. and I.L.M. citations to major treaties. Click on the name of the treaty for a link to the EISIL database of the American Society of International Law where you will find the treaty text and information about status and ratifications.

•  Multilateral Treaty Calendar = Répertoire des traités
multilateraux, 1648-1995. Christian L. Wiktor. The Hague; Boston: M. Nijhoff Publishers; Cambridge, Mass.: Sold and distributed in North, Central, and South America by Kluwer Law International, 1998.  This chronological list provides citations to multilateral and national treaty sources. NOTE: Coverage stops after 1995.
Reference Desk   KZ118 .W55 1998

•  Multilateral Treaties: Index and Current Status. Compiled and
annotated within the University of Nottingham Treaty Centre by
M.J. Bowman and D.J. Harris. London: Butterworths, 1984.
NOTE: Coverage stops after 1993.
Reference Desk  JX151 B68 1984 

•  World Treaty Index. Peter H. Rohn. 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1983-l984. 5 v. Lists bilateral and multilateral treaties. NOTE: Coverage stops after 1980.
Reference Desk   JX171 R64 W6 1983 

•  EISIL Treaty Collections .American Society of International Law electronic collection of treaties and research guides.  <www.eisil.org/index.php?sid=297648529&cat=705&t=sub_pages>
Click on "More Information" for treaty citations, entry into force and signature dates, web texts, etc.

•  United States Treaties in Force

• [United Nations] Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General: Status as at [date]. United Nations Treaty Collection Database >Access to Database>Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General.

United States Treaties
United Nations and League of Nations Treaties
Unofficial treaty sources--General
Finding other treaties

UNITED STATES TREATIES
1.  Where is your treaty published? Is it in force? Status of pending ratification, etc.
2.  Official U.S. treaty sources
3.  Unofficial U.S. treaty sources
4.  For more information about U.S. treaties 

1.  WHERE IS YOUR TREATY PUBLISHED? IS IT IN FORCE?
United States Treaties in Force <www.state.gov/s/l/treaty>Treaties in Force (section I bilateral, section II multilateral) provides citations to T.I.A.S., U.S.T., and other treaty sources; names of signatories and parties; and dates of signing and entry into force. The latest paper edition of Treaties in Forces is at Reference JX236 1929c. Treaties in Force is also in HeinOnline >Treaties and Agreements Library.

•  To update Treaties in Force (new official citations, information on new treaties or the entry into force of a previously signed treaties) go to go to
Treaties Pending in the Senate (Updated as of ... )  <www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/pending/> and to
Treaty Actions <www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/c3428.htm>.

For new treaties, also check:
>HeinOnline >Treaties and Agreements Library>Search

>USTREATIES in WESTLAW

>THOMAS <www.thomas.loc.gov> Treaties

>U.S. Senate Treaties page <www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/d_three_sections_with_teasers/treaties.htm>

>Congressional Index Published in looseleaf format for every session of Congress. Updated weekly. Look at the section Treaties--Nominations for treaty status in committee and Senate Treaty Report number, if a report was published.
B1 KF49 .C6

>Dept. of State Freedom of Information Act--Search Documents Collection  <www.foia.state.gov/SearchColls/CollsSearch.asp>
Choose "International Agreements" and enter a country name in the search box at the bottom of the page.

•  For information on older treaties, look in the following older sources:
> U.S. Department of State Dispatch. 9/3/1990-12/1999.
Compact Shelves JX232 A352

>Bulletin. U.S. Department of State. 1939-1989.
Compact Shelves JX232 A35
Also in HeinOnline >Treaties and Agreements Library

>Press Releases. U.S. Department of State. 10/5/1929-12/1939. Compact Shelves JX232 A32

>Treaty Information Bulletin. U.S. Department of State. Oct. 1929-June 1939.  For an electronic version, search the title in Julius.

2.  OFFICIAL U.S. TREATY SOURCES: Check the date of your treaty--the official sources have changed over time. Also note that Bluebook R.21.4.5(a)(i) does not require a cite to all of these sources, e.g., T.I.A.S. is not required if U.S.T. is available for the same treaty.

1778-1949
Statutes at Large. For 1778-1845, treaties are in volumes 7 and 8. Starting with 1846, treaties were published sessionally.  For a list of the treaties in Statutes at Large (excluding the treaties with American Indians in volumes 7 through 18), see vol. 64, pt. 3, pp. B1107-B1182. 
Derenberg KF50 U5  
PDFs searchable in HeinOnline Treaties & Agreements Library
PDFs searchable by country, number and topic in LexisNexis (Federal Legal--US)

97th Congress, 1981-
Senate Treaty Documents (called Senate Executive Documents through the 95th Congress, 1980). This is the first published source for selected treaties. The Law Library has these documents in the CIS microfiche. Get the CIS microfiche number (and some full-text documents) through the LexisNexis Congressional database (Congressional Publications--Search by number). S. Treaty Documents starting with the 104th Congress (1994/95) are also in GPOAccess <www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/cdocuments/index.html>.
See also State Department Documents available through C.T.I.A. below.

1946-
T.I.A.S.  Publication is late by as much as ten years. T.I.A.S. continues two other series called Treaty Series and Executive Agreement Series.
Compact Shelves JX235 9A32
Dept. of State has 1996 and 1997 in PDF.
T.I.A.S. 11060- also in HeinOnline >Treaties and Agreements Library

1950-
U.S.T.  Publication is late by as much as twenty years.
Compact Shelves JX231 A34
HeinOnline >Treaties and Agreements Library

3. UNOFFICIAL U.S. TREATY SOURCES
Bluebook R. 21.4.5(c)

   •  HeinOnLine >The Treaties and Agreements Library comes close to being a "one-stop shop" for U.S. treaty research. It contains PDFs of the official sources--Statutes at Large vols 7 and 8 (go to the HeinOnLine main page for volumes other than 7 and 8); U.S.T. 1950-1984; T.I.A.S. 1982-1996; and for more recent treaties not yet published in T.I.A.S. or U.S.T., there are Dept. of State documents, Senate Treaty Documents, etc. 1987- (KAV Agreements). The database also has s Bevans and other preferred unofficial sources, the Dept. of State Dispatch and Bulletin, and some classic treaty resources and excellent research guides.  Click on Search to search for treaties by country, date, treaty number, words, etc.

  •  Dept. of State Freedom of Information Act--Search Documents Collection  <www.foia.state.gov/SearchColls/CollsSearch.asp>
Choose "International Agreements" and enter a country name in the search box at the bottom of the page to look for recent memoranda of understanding, protocols, etc. between the U.S. and other countries. This is a database of declassified documents. 

   •  >THOMAS <www.thomas.loc.gov> Treaties
  
   •  CTIA. Consolidated Treaties & International Agreements. Current Document Service, United States. A print source to cite for State Dept. Documents if the Senate Treaty Document is not available.  Compact Shelves JX236 1990 U54
 
 •  WESTLAW:  USTREATIES  Volumes 8-64 (1778-1949) of Statutes at Large, U.S.T., T.I.A.S., Dept. of State documents 1990-, Senate Treaty Documents 1993-.

 •  LexisNexis:  USTRTY (International Law) A very large file covering 1776 to present and including Bevans, Senate Treaty documents, State Dept. slip documents, T.I.A.S., U.S.T. (except not vol. 31, part 2).

  •  Bevans, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America, 1776-1949, a compilation published by the G.P.O. covering about the same period as the official Statutes at Large.  Compact Shelves JX236 1968 A5
 

4.  For more information about U.S. treaties

See also Kirgis, International Agreements and U.S. Law, ASIL Insight, May 1997. <www.asil.org/insights/insigh10.htm>

U.S. Senate Treaties page <www.senate.gov/reference/reference_index_subjects/Treaties_vrd.htm> esp., Treaties and Other International Agreements: The Role of the United States Senate: A Study.

Researching Treaty Sources. University of Minnesota Law Library. <www.law.umn.edu/library/pathfinders/treaties.htm>


UNITED NATIONS and LEAGUE OF NATIONS TREATIES
1. Where is your treaty published, which states are parties, is it in force, etc?
2. United Nations Treaty Series
3. League of Nations Treaty Series

1.  WHERE IS YOUR TREATY PUBLISHED, WHICH STATES ARE PARTIES, IS IT IN FORCE, etc.? Citations to U.N.T.S. or other official U.N. documents, dates of signing and entry into force, lists of signatory countries and parties, the text of declarations and reservations, and treaty status information are provided in Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General: Status as at [date]. The most up-to-date version is the online version in the United Nations Treaty Collection Database >Access to Database>Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General. The date of latest updating is shown at the top of the table of contents page; it is usually current within two days. The latest paper edition is at Reference JX1977 A2 ST LEG SER.E. 

2.  UNITED NATIONS TREATY SERIES
Compact Shelves JX170 U35 (unbound issues in B2 South)

•  PDFs United Nations Treaty Collection Database
>Access to Databases>United Nations Treaty Series.
Search for treaties by title, keywords, type of agreement (bilateral, multilateral, subsequent action), date, participants, subject, popular name. 

3.  LEAGUE OF NATIONS TREATY SERIES
1920-1945.  Compact Shelves JX170 L4

PDFs available through the United Nations Treaty Collection Database >Access to Databases>League of Nations Treaty Series. It will still say U.N.T.S., but if you click on Advanced Search and change Organization to LN, you will be searching in the League of Nations Treaty Series database.
Search for treaties by title, keywords, type of agreement (bilateral, multilateral, subsequent action), date, participants, subject, popular name. 


UNOFFICIAL TREATY SOURCES--General   
Bluebook R. 21.4.5(c)

   •  International Legal Materials:
        Print: Compact Shelves JX27 I5 A5 (unbound in B2 South)
        HeinOnLine >Law Journal Lib PDFs, 1962-previous year
        WESTLAW  "ILM" 1980-current
        LexisNexis 1962-current

   •  Websites of governments and intl organizations:
     NYU Law Library International Treaties page
     <www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/treaties.html>
    
   •  Consolidated Treaty Series (Parry). Bilateral and multilateral treaties, 1648-1919. Compact Shelves JX121 P26

  •  Martens Nouveau recueil général de traités: conventions et    autres transactions remarquables.... Covers 1840-1969.
Compact Shelves JX142 .M36x... Series 1, 2 and 3.

  •  Treaty cited to a book:  Search library catalogs with a keyword from the name or subject of the treaty and the word "documents." Example:
South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, Aug. 6, 1985, reprinted in Documents in International Environmental Law, IIB Principles of International Environmental Law 1004-1016. (Philippe Sands et al. eds.,  Manchester, UK; New York: Manchester University Press; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press1994).


FINDING OTHER TREATIES

•  Council of Europe. European Conventions and Agreements.
Compact Shelves  NYUL KE-E3 L34 3C67 E5
The bound series is very slow, so the Library also receives the advance copies of the treaties in the European Treaty Series. Compact Shelves NYUL KE-E3 L34 3C67 E7
 
• United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights <www.ohchr.org/english/> Click on International Law.
Texts and status of human rights instruments. Links to the websites and documents of the monitoring bodies.

•  Hague Conference on Private International Law <www.hcch.net/index_en.php> Conventions.

•   New York University Law Library International Treaties Guide
<www.law.nyu.edu/library/foreign_intl/treaties.html>

•   ASIL guide to Electronic Resources for International Law: Treaties by Jill McC. Watson. <www.asil.org/resource/treaty1.htm>

•   Finding treaties signed by, or treaty series published by, other countries:

World Treaty Index is good for finding treaties by the name of a country, but it covers only through 1980.
Reference  JX171 R64 W6 1983

The Bluebook Table T.2 may list the national treaty publication. See also the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations.

See also Sources of State Practice in International Law. Ed. Ralph Gaebler and Maria Smolka-Day. Ardsley, N.Y.: Transnational Publishers, 2002- (loose-leaf).  Reserve   KZ118 .S68, and

National Treaty Law and Practice.... American Society of International Law.  Search this title in Julius for volumes covering various countries.

CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL LAW and STATE PRACTICE
Article 38(1)(b) of the Statute of the International Court of Justice states:

The Court, whose function it is to decide in accordance with international law such disputes as are submitted to it, shall apply:

b. international custom, as evidence of a general practice accepted as law.

Background reading on researching customary international law:

•  Public International Law in a Nutshell. Thomas Buergenthal,
Sean D. Murphy. 4th ed. St. Paul, MN : Thomson/West, 2007.
Circ  KZ3092 .B84 2007.  Chapters 2 and 13

•  Practice and Methods of International Law. Shabtai Rosenne. Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. : Oceana Publications, 1984.  
Compact Shelves  JX3695 I8 R67 1984

•  Contemporary Practice of Public International Law. Ed. Ellen G. Schaffer & Randall J. Snyder. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1997. Chapters 1-4.
Compact Shelves JX3091 .I685 1997

•   Guide to International Legal Research. The George Washington University Law School International Law Review. LexisNexis, 2006, pp.1-26 through 1-30. Reserve KZ1234 .G85

OFFICIAL RECORDS Rules 21.7.1 and 21.1.3 through 21.7.9

NOTE: The most recent paper issues of Official Records Supplements are in Unbound Periodicals in B2 South.

The Law Library has Official Records Supplements in paper as follows:

General Assembly Compact Shelves JX1977 A41
GAOR supplements include reports from subsidiary bodies R.21.7.3, the budget, and resolutions. The supplements bear the first (lowest numbered)  document symbols for a GA session, e.g., A/52/1, A/52/2, A/52/3, etc. Examples are:
Report of the Security Council, A/60/2
Report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, A/60/36
Human Rights Committee Report, A/60/40
Resolutions and Decisions, A/60/49.

For reports to the GA from a particular subsidiary body since 1946, a list of the GAOR supplement numbers and the corresponding UN document symbols is available in UN-I-QUE <lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf> (search keywords from the body name, plus the word report) and in the back of the Index to Proceedings of the General Assembly for the session (Compact Shelves JX1977 A2 ST/LIB Ser. B/A). Use these document symbols for online searching in the ODS, AccessUN and UNBISNET (see below).  

Security Council  Compact Shelves JX1977 A52 R3
SCOR quarterly supplements reprint selected documents from the SC session. S/INF/..., part of the SCOR, collects the resolutions and decisions for the year. See resolutions above. Index to Proceedings of the Security Council. Compact Shelves  JX1977 A2 ST/LIB Ser.B/S

Economic and Social Council  Compact Shelves JX1977 A2118
ESCOR supplements include reports from subsidiary bodies and resolutions, e.g., Report of the Commission on Human Rights, E/2000/23 (E/CN.4/2000/167). For reports to the ECOSOC from a particular subsidiary body since 1946, a list of the ESCOR supplement numbers and the corresponding UN document symbols is available in UN-I-QUE <lib-unique.un.org/lib/unique.nsf> (search keywords from the body name, plus the word report)  and in the back of the Index to Proceedings of the Economic and Social Council for each session (Compact Shelves  JX1977 A2 ST/LIB Ser.B/E5). Use these document symbols for online searching in the ODS, AccessUN and UNBISNET (see below).

Along with the Official Records supplements, the Library has Meeting Records in paper for some earlier sessions only--same call numbers as Official Records Supplements above. The document symbols for meeting records end in .../PV... for procès verbaux (verbatim records) and .../SR.... for summary records. 

The ODS  <www.documents.un.org> has Official Records and Meeting Records in PDF from 1993 to date (starting earlier for some bodies) and Resolutions from 1946 to date. The Readex microfiche collection has exact facsimiles of official records and meetings records from 1946 to 2005. The quickest way to search the ODS and the AccessUN index to the microfiche is with a U.N. document symbol, but you can also search by keywords, etc.


U.N. DOCUMENTS generally--resolutions, meeting records, letters, reports, etc. Although the Law Library does not get individual U.N. documents in paper, you have extensive access to U.N. documents without leaving the Law Library. You can make exact facsimile copies of U.N. documents from 1945-2005 (with gaps in the 1980s) for free from the library's U.N. microfiche collection, and the ODS has PDFs for 1993 to date.

See the chart below for more details. The NYU Bobst Library has a larger collection of U.N. Official Records and documents in paper.

A U.N. document symbol (letters and numbers separated by slashes and periods) is the quickest way to search online. NOTE: When reviewing a list of U.N. documents, symbols ending in ...Add., ..Corr., ...Rev., etc., may be addenda, corrections, revisions, or other documents related to your original document.

If you don't have a U.N. document symbol, you can search with keywords, title, U.N. body, date, etc. in the following:

REPORTS FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL  R.21.7.3 (c)
Recent reports are available on the U.N. Website <www.un.org/documents/repsc.htm>. You can also search for the reports in the U.N. document sources described above. To search, combine keywords, title word "report," and the document symbol S/[year]/, e.g. S/2001/.

PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCES  R.21.7.3(b)
Other reports and proceedings may or may not be published in the Official Records or as separate U.N. documents. In addition, major bodies may have their own records, e.g., summary records of the meetings of the International Law Commission appear in its Yearbook. Another strategy is to run an author, title or subject search in JULIUS, Bobcat or another library catalog using the organization or conference name to see if the library owns the reports or proceedings as separate publications.


INTERNATIONAL LAW COMMISSION  U.N. document symbol  A/CN.4/--

•  International Law Commission Research database.
<http://www.un.org/law/ilc/> Click on Research. Very useful.

•  Yearbook of the International Law Commission.
Compact Shelves JX1977 A2 A/CN.4/Ser.A (unbound in
B2 South)
Vol. I: Summary records of ILC meetings.
Vol. II: Report of the ILC session to the GA, which includes reports of special rapporteurs and other documents from the session, including texts and drafts of conventions and model laws.  Also issued as Supplement No. 10 to the GAOR--Compact Shelves JX1977 A41 (unbound in B2 South).

•  Analytical Guide to the Work of the International Law Commission, 1949-1997. New York: United Nations, 1998. <http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/guide/gfra.htm> For links to ILC reports, ILC Yearbooks, Special Rapporteur reports and other ILC materials on your topic, choose a link from the outline of topics that have been addressed by the ILC. 
Reserve  KZ1287.U55 A53x 1998
 

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL U.N. document symbol A/HRC-
Human Rights Council homepage with documents, resolutions, agenda, rules, etc. <www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/>


HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE U.N. document symbol  CCPR/- and  A/C.3/-

"Views" and inadmissibility decisions of the HR Committee in communications submitted under art. 5, para. 4, of the Optional Protocol

•  Example:  Communication No. 616/1995, Hamilton v. Jamaica (views adopted 23 July 1999, 66th Sess.), Report of the Human Rights Committee to the GA, GAOR, 54th Sess., Supp. No. 40, at 73, U.N. Doc. No. A/54/40 (2000).

•  Official paper source: U.N. Doc. No. A/54/40 at the end of the citation above refers to Supplement No. 40 to the GAOR, Compact Shelves JX1977 A41 (unbound in B2 South). It contains volume II of the annual Report of the Human Rights Committee to the GA, which prints the Views of the Committee on communications under the Optional Protocol.

This official version is usually published very late. Look for recent views in journals such as International Human Rights Reports, K3236.3 .I58x, and on the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body Database<