Treaty Research

This guide describes resources and methods for locating and updating treaties of the United States and other countries.

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Unofficial Full-Text Sources for U.S. Treaties

It is also possible to retrieve the full texts of U.S. treaties and other international agreements from several unofficial, commercially published sources.  These unofficial sources are described in the table below. 

Bear in mind that Bluebook Rule 21.4.5 states that official U.S. treaty sources are preferred over unofficial sources when citing to a treaty to which the U.S. is a party.  For further guidance on which treaty sources to cite, see the Treaty Citations page of this research guide.

Title and Description Citation Dates of Coverage Print/Microform Holdings Online Access
Hein's U.S. Treaties and Int'l Agreements Current Service (KAV Agreements)
Use in conjunction with Kavass's Current Treaty Index (described in this table).  Content is arranged by Kavass number (KAV).  Useful for accessing recent treaties and agreements, including un-ratified treaties, that have not yet been assigned an official T.I.A.S. citation number.		 Hein's KAV no. xxxx 1984-present KZ235.5 .H45 Micro
 		 HeinOnline
International Legal Materials
This series selectively publishes the full texts of U.S. treaties and executive agreements, as well as the texts of some treaties to which the U.S. is not a party, along with other types of materials (court decisions issued by international tribunals, reports issued by international organizations, etc.). 		vol. no. I.L.M. xxxx 1962-present
 		 KZ64 .I58 (Current issues on reserve.)

HeinOnline

JSTOR

Lexis

Westlaw

Treaties and Other International Agreements of the U.S. (Bevans)
This compilation includes U.S. treaties and agreements that entered into force prior to 1950.  Usually referred to as "Bevans" for the name of its editor.  Volumes 1-4:  multilateral treaties and agreements arranged by date of signature.  Volumes 5-12:  bilateral treaties and agreements arranged alphabetically by treaty partner.  Volume 13:  cumulative country and subject indexes. 

Bevans supersedes two prior compilations:  Malloy (1778-1937) and Miller (1778-1863).  For some inexplicable reason, The Bluebook classifies these three compilations as an "unofficial" treatu sources for citation purposes, even though each of them was published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

 vol. no. Bevans xxxx

 		 1778-1949 KZ236 .A3 HeinOnline

LLMC Digital

Law Library of Congress