Legal research guide: Public International Law: Treaties
Information on how to define, find and cite a Treaty.
Just as Statutes are the main source of Domestic Law in Australia, Treaties have become the key source of Law in International Law. A Treaty is a formally signed and ratified Agreement between two or more Nations or Sovereigns.
It is important to remember that Treaties do not come into force when they are signed. Most Treaties will have a clause which specifies the requirements of the Treaty entering into force. The clause may include a ratification date and a requirement that a certain number of parties have ratified before it can become law.
Treaties can also be referred to as Agreements, Conventions, Covenants and Protocols. All of these terms have the same legal status, but are not necessarily interchangeable.
A Protocol has the same legal standing as a Treaty, but is generally used to amend, supplement or clarify an existing Treaty. The Kyoto Protocol's parent Treaty is the Convention on Climate Change. Parties of the parent Agreement can choose to ratify the Protocol or not.
See the UN Treaty Handbook glossary for definitions of terminology used with respect to Treaties.
Definitions of key Treaty terms and a glossary of terms relating to Treaty actions, is available from the United Nations Treaty Collection.
To locate a United Nations Treaty you can use these databases:
The United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) (free database). You can access this database for free and includes access to various UN Treaties, Conventions, Agreements and Protocols. To search for Treaties in this database, we recommend that you use the Title Search tab.
The United Nations Treaty Series from Hein Online is a subscription based database you can also use to look for Treaties. This database contains the full text of over 158,000 UN Treaties and it will tell you if any journal articles have discussed the treaty! You can use Hein Online's built in Scholar Check to do this. So it is great for finding value added information relating to a Treaty!
Please note: If you cannot find a Treaty in the UNTS database, it may not yet be "in force". You will need to look at the International Legal Materials (ILM), Hein Online or use the Australian Treaty Series (ATS) available from AUSTLII.
Several links are provided below of various tools you can use to help you find a Treaty.
- United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)A collection of treaties and international agreements registered and published by the Secretariat. The United Nations Treaty Series (1946-onwards) is the authorised source for locating treaties published by the United Nations in accordance with Article 102 of the UN. To look for documents, use the Title Search tab.
- HeinOnline UN Law CollectionThe United Nations Treaty Series is now available through the Hein Online UN Law Collection subset of Hein. This includes easy to use finding aids, and ScholarCheck, which links to journal articles that cite a treaty.
- HeinOnline World Treaty LibraryAn easy-to-use and fully searchable database. Good for historical Treaty research.
- United Nations Treaty CollectionContains the full text of over 158,000 treaties and subsequent actions that have been published by the United Nations in accordance with Article 102 of the UN Charter. The UNTS is a part of this collection.
- League of Nations Treaty SeriesLeague of Nations Treaty Series (1920-1944)
- Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-GeneralIf you are unsure or the status of a treaty, this is a good starting point. This publication reflects the status of multilateral treaties, as Member States sign, ratify, accede or lodge declarations, reservations or objections.
- International Legal Materials (ILM)ILM contains the full texts of important treaties and agreements.
- Australian Treaty Series (ATS)Contains the texts of all treaties that Australia is a party to. Also contains Australian treaties not yet in force.
- The Consolidated Treaty SeriesFor treaties prior to 1920 use The Consolidated Treaty Series by Clive Parry. Available Offsite Storage. Requests can be placed via OneSearch.
- Multilaterals Project:This database is maintained by the Fletcher School, Tufts University. It can be used to search for texts of international multilateral conventions and other instruments relating to various international law topics.
For more information on how to cite a Treaty or other international legal materials refer to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.
The Treaty Series Citation consists of a volume number, Treaty series citation abbreviation and page number. For United Nations Treaties, the volume number can be found on the UNTS homepage for the Treaty and the page number can be located by opening the full text of the Treaty.
| Example | Agreement regarding the Transfer of the Administration of Justice in the Territories of Northern Slesvig, | Denmark - Germany, | signed 12 July 1921, | 8 LNTS 397 | (entered into force 17 January 1922) | art 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Element | Treaty Title | Parties' Names |
Date Opened for Signature or Signed |
Treaty Series | Date of Entry into Force | Pinpoint |
| Rule | 8.1 | 8.2 | 8.3 | 8.4 | 8.3 | 8.7 |
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