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International law consists of rules and principles
which govern the relations and dealings of nations with each other.
Most of the time a distinction is made between Public
International Law and Conflict of Laws (sometimes
referred to as Private International Law)
Public International Law is concerned with the
relations between States or the relations between states and
individual nationals of other states. Some topics in public
international law include human rights, international criminal law,
the law of the sea, law of space and the environment etc...
Conflict of Laws (or Private International law in
civil systems) is the body of conventions, model laws,
and other instruments that regulate private
relationships across national borders. Some topics in conflict of
laws include international trade and international dispute
resolution.
Treaties are international agreements negotiated
between sovereign powers and constitute one of the major sources of
international law. Article 38(1) of the International Court of
Justice Statute indicates that international law consists of or has
its basis in international conventions (treaties), international
custom, and general principles of law.
Treaties can be referred to by a number of different names:
international conventions, international agreements, covenants,
final acts, charters, protocols, pacts, accords, and constitutions
for international organizations. Usually these different names have
no legal significance in international law. Treaties may be
bilateral (two parties) or multilateral (between several parties)
and a treaty is usually only binding on the parties to the
agreement. An agreement "enters into force" when the terms for entry
into force as specified in the agreement are met. Bilateral treaties
usually enter into force when both parties agree to be bound as of a
certain date.
For some treaties, a country is legally bound at the
moment the treaty is signed by an authorized party. However, for the
vast majority of treaties there is a subsequent step generally
called "ratification". It is the act by which a county makes clear
its intent to be legally bound by the treaty. Once in force,
treaties are binding upon all parties signatory to it.
ASIL Electronic Resources for International Law by Jill McC. Watson
LLRX.com -
Researching Non-U.S. Treaties and Agreements By Stefanie Weigman
Treaty Research: Universiteit Utrecht
À la Recherche des Travaux Préparatoires: An Approach to Researching the Drafting
History of International Agreements By Jonathan Pratter
Law
Library of Congress (U.S.): Research Help: Treaties
GlobalLex: An Introduction to Sources for Treaty Research By Mark
Engsberg
Researching Non-U.S. Treaties and Agreements By Stefanie Weigman
Multilateral treaty calendar 1648-1995 By Christian L. Wiktor. (1998)
KZ 118.W5
The Major International Treaties of the Twentieth
Century: a History and Guide with Texts, edited by J.A.S. Grenville
and Bernard Wasserstein. 2001.
KZ 172.8.M2
Treaties and alliances of the world / with
contributions by Peter Calvert ... [et al.]
KZ 1301.T7
International Legal Materials Vol.1 (1962) onwards
K1.I663 and
Online
Encyclopedia of the United Nations and international
agreements / Edmund Jan Osmancyzk ; edited by Anthony Mango
JX 1977.O7
Basic documents in international law Edited by Ian Brownlie. (2002)
KZ 3092.B2
Blackstone's Statutes : international law documents
/ edited by Malcolm D. Evans
KZ 3092.B5
Flare Index to Treaties
A searchable database of basic information on over 1,500 of the most
significant multilateral treaties from 1856 to the present, with
details of where the full text of each treaty may be obtained in
paper and, if available, electronic form on the Internet.
African Union
Originally founded as the Organization of African
Unity, the website for African Union contains the texts of its
treaties plus lists of countries which have signed, acceded or
ratified the treaties.
Council of
Europe
The Council of Europe’s official treaty web site
available in French, German, Italian and Russian through the links
in its upper navigation banner. Contains the texts of all Council of
Europe treaties in Html and Word format, as well as the explanatory
reports.
European Union
From this page you can access the basic legal texts
on which the European Union and the European Communities are
founded: the founding Treaties (original versions and later
updates), the amending Treaties, the Accession Treaties for each of
the six enlargements, plus other essential documents.
NATO: Basic Texts
Contains "the basic texts of the Alliance: from the
Treaty and its protocols to the Partnership for Peace documents".
Organisation of American States
The official treaty website for the OAS contains the
text of OAS treaties and is navigable by year, subject or
alphabetically and also contains signatory and ratification
information.
UN Treaty
Collection
Contains a number of different databases including:
Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the
Secretary-General; United Nations Treaty Series (14 December 1946 -
January 2005); League of Nations Treaty Series (5 July 1920 -
3 October 1944); and Texts of Recently Deposited Multilateral
Treaties. Plus photos of signing ceremonies, treaty handbook, and
teaty reference guide including a glossary of treaty terms and more.
Hague Conference on Private International Law
With nearly 70 Members representing all continents,
the Hague Conference on Private International Law is a global
inter-governmental organisation. Contains the text of all the
treaties adopted by the conference.
Avalon
Project
Located at Yale the Avalon project is a
cross-disciplinary (though US-oriented) website which gives a
greater international relations context to treaties over the last
several hundred years. Their goal is to "mount digital documents
relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics,
Diplomacy and Government".
Heiros Gamos
Includes links to
treaties, supra-national organisations and information/news on national
regimes.
Law Library of
Congress: Guide to Law Online: Treaties
Contains treaty links with sections on sites texts and legal guides.
Lex Mercatoria
Comprehensive and
key site including links to various related topics such as; international
economic law; arbitration; e-commence; private international law, human
rights, criminal law, environmental law etc. Each section
includes a list of treaties.
Multi-Laterals Project
From Fletcher Law School, Tufts University.
Whatconvention.org
Trilingual
legal search engine with access to public law, particularly human rights and
humanitarian law. Contains over 250 conventions analysed article by article
and includes status information (entry into force, ratification,
reservations).
WorldLII: International
Treaties and Agreements
Treaty links from the World Legal Information
Institute.
Alliance Treaty
Obligations and Provisions Project
The Alliance Treaty Obligations and Provisions
(ATOP) project provides data regarding the content of military
alliance agreements signed by all countries of the world between
1815 and 2003.
Ariga:
Peace Historic documents and agreements
A collection that relates to the Arab-Israeli peace
process from 1900 to the present. Documents include the Balfour
Declaration (1917), Security Council Resolution 242 (1967), Camp
David (1978) and the Arab (Saudi) Peace Initiative (2002).
Bayefsky.com
Its aim is
to enhance the implementation of the human rights legal standards of the
United Nations and to increase access to these documents by making materials
associated with the treaty system available in electronic and user-friendly
form.
Ecolex
ECOLEX is operated jointly by FAO, IUCN and UNEP and
is a comprehensive, global source of information on environmental
law. Contains treaties and some national laws.
Food and
Agriculture Organization
Contains the text and status of FAO treaties.
ICSID
Bilateral Investment Treaties
ICSID has since the early 1970s collected the texts
of bilateral investment treaties. This database contains information
on all the bilateral investment treaties collected by ICSID to date.
The information is organized alphabetically by signatory, and may be
further searched by selecting two specific States or the year of
signature
ILOLEX
ILOLEX is a trilingual database containing ILO
Conventions and Recommendations, ratification information, comments
of the Committee of Experts and the Committee on Freedom of
Association, representations, complaints, interpretations, General
Surveys, and numerous related documents
International
Committee of the Red Cross: International Humanitarian Law
Contains the text of 100 treaties and other texts
(including law protecting the victims of war and law governing the
conduct of hostilities, from 1856 to the present). The treaties are
set out both in the form of their full text and of their individual
articles. They are arranged according to subject and in
chronological order.
International Maritime Organization
Promoting safety at sea and the prevention of
pollution, provides a good description of the history and procedures
of adopting IMO maritime conventions- click on the 'Legal' tab.
Juris
International: International Trade
A partnership of the Universities of Montreal and
Nancy, France and the International Trade Centre (UNCTAD/WTO), has
collected trade treaties in English, ish and French, fully
searchable as well as arranged by country, by subject or
chronologically. They offer status information, text, and a link to
the Secretariat where appropriate.
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Provides the text, ratification, status and
reservation information for all UN human rights treaties.
Peace Agreements Digital Library
The Peace Agreements Digital Collection, part of the
Margarita S. Studemeister Digital Library in International Conflict
Management, strives to contain the full text of agreements signed by
the major contending parties ending inter- and intra-state conflicts
worldwide since 1989. It is a collection constantly under
development by the Jeannette Rankin Library Program as a means to
strengthen worldwide access to information on peaceful means to end
international conflict.
UNCTAD Investments Instruments Online
For the past decade, UNCTAD has been actively
monitoring and analysing the increase in the number of bilateral
treaties (BITs) for the promotion and protection of foreign
investments. A Compilation of about 1,800 available BITs is now
accessible via the search engine.
UNIDROIT
The International Institute for the Unification of
Private Law has the texts of the conventions they have drawn up
since 1964 that have been adopted by their member states, as well as
a
status section with signatures, ratifications, declarations and
reservations.
UNESCO
Provides a variety of legal instruments including
conventions, declarations and resolutions back to 1948.
WHO International Digest of Health Legislation
The International Digest of Health Legislation contains a selection
of national and international health legislation. Texts of
legislation are summarized in English or mentioned by their title.
Where possible, links are provided to other websites that contain
full texts of the legislation in question. You can query the
database by: selecting a country; selecting a subject; selecting a
volume; selecting an issue; looking for a specific keyword.
WIPO
Treaties
Provides the text and detailed information on all 24
treaties administered by WIPO and the WIPO Convention.
World War I Document
Archive
Contains documents relation to WWI from pre-1914 to 1918
WTO:
Legal Texts
Most of the WTO agreements are the result of the
1986–94 Uruguay Round negotiations, signed at the Marrakesh
ministerial meeting in April 1994. There are about 60 agreements and
decisions totalling 550 pages. Negotiations since then have produced
additional legal texts such as the Information Technology Agreement,
services and accession protocols. New negotiations were launched at
the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001.
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