Researching multilateral treaties, even when the U.S. is not a party, is usually much easier than researching bilateral treaties to which the U.S. is not a party. More treaty indexes provide citations to multilateral treaties than to bilateral treaties. Full-text treaty collections typically offer more comprehensive coverage of multilateral treaties. Status information and drafting histories (travaux préparatoires) are much more readily accessible for multilateral treaties, especially those that have been drafted within the past 50 years under the sponsorship of an international or inter-governmental organization.
