Showing posts with label treaties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label treaties. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2014

HeinOnline's United Nations Law Collection

Since yesterday was United Nations Day, this is a good time for a reminder about the United Nations Law Collection on HeinOnline. Finding international sources can be a challenge. This collection should not be overlooked when searching for treaties, international arbitration rules and awards, International Court of Justice judgments and case materials, and so much more.  Special finding features also make it easy to search for a treaty or agreement by citation, popular name, and other identifiers.

The United Nations Law Collection consists of nine sections: Treaty Publications; International Court of Justice (ICJ); United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL); International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS); United Nations Yearbooks; United Nations Serials; Codification and Progressive Development of International Law; and United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research.  There is a wealth of material here for researching topics in international law, trade, and human rights, as well as for the source gathering of specific documents--all of it in PDF.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Treaty Citations -- Sometimes They Don't Exist as Expected

A recent opinion article in The New York Times describes how we can expect the United States to rely more on treaty-like agreements than on actual treaties in the future. In such agreements, the U.S. agrees to try wholeheartedly to pass legislation that achieves the goals of the agreement, rather than signing a treaty and sending it to the Senate for ratification, because treaty ratification requires 67 votes in the Senate and legislation only requires 60 votes (with the modern-day filibuster).

Variations of this have been done in the past, even with what seem to be major multilateral treaties. For Instance, the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was signed by the U.S., but never ratified by the Senate, though it is generally accepted as binding on the U.S.

The main source people cite to for recent treaties to which the U.S. is a party is TIAS, the Treaties and Other International Acts Series. However, TIAS only publishes treaties that have been ratified by the Senate (the same is true for the older United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) and Treaties in Force).

So, if you are looking for an official citation to a treaty that the U.S. signed, make sure that the U.S. actually ratified the treaty before tearing your hair out. The treaty may not have been ratified, even if the U.S. has been following the treaty as though it was. For non-ratified treaties, find a citation in a non-U.S. source, like the United Nations Treaty Series (Hein link).

Note: An increasingly popular type of non-treaty agreement for the U.S. is the Executive Agreement, which requires no Senate approval. But Executive Agreements should not be as confusing as major multilateral treaties that the U.S. appears to follow, but were never ratified.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Saturday, September 11, 2010

New International Law Library

If you have ever tried to track down an elusive case from an international court or human rights tribunal, the best news this week may be the launch of the International Law Library, self-described as the "most comprehensive free-access international law library on the Internet." The International Law Library site contains links to over 25,000 decisions of international courts and tribunals and over 30,000 United Nations documents and other treaties and agreements. It is searchable across all types of documents and all collections.

Developed by the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AUSTLII), this digital library is updated regularly with new materials from legal information institutes around the world that are part of the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII), and from other sources. It also features a citator that tracks where international cases, treaties and law journal articles have been cited, as well as links to other international law materials on the Internet. Anyone involved with international law study, research or source gathering should definitely check this out.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Monday, May 11, 2009

Flare Index to Treaties

Looking for a treaty? The Flare Index to Treaties is a searchable database of multilateral treaties from 1856 to the present.

The database presents information about more than 1,500 treaties, and provides links to the full text of the treaty when it is available online.

Hat tip to Cornell Law Library's InSite.


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat