POLS 350: International Law and International Relations

Selected Introductions to International Law

All of the books below are in the Zief Law Library. Law Course Reserve and Law Open Reserve books can be used for a set period of time within the library; request these items at the law library Circulation Desk. Books in Law Stacks or Law Compact Storage may be checked out for 30 days and renewed online.

Public International Law in a Nutshell by Thomas Buergenthal, Sean D. 4th edition.
Law Course Reserves 2 Hour KZ3410 .B84 2007

An Introduction to International Law by Mark Weston Janis. 5th edition.
Law Stacks KZ3140.J36 A35 2008. Older editions in Law Compact Storage.

Principles of Public International Law by Ian Brownlie. 7th edition.
Law Course Reserves 2 Hour KZ3225.B78 P7 2008. Older editions in Law Stacks and Law Compact Storage.

International Law by Malcolm N. Shaw. 6th edition.
Law Course Reserves KZ3275 .S53 2008. 2003 edition in Law Stacks.

Understanding International Law by Stephen C. McCaffrey
Law Course Reserves 2 hour KZ 3900 .M38 2006

International Law: Examples and Explanations by Valerie Epps and Lori Graham
Law Open Reserve KZ1242 .E675 2011

International Law Frameworks by David J. Bedermen. 3rd edition.
Law Open Reserve KZ 3410 .B43 2010

Basic Documents in International Law edited by Ian Brownlie. 6th edition.
Law Stacks KZ64 .B37 2009. Older editions in Law Compact Storage.

Basic Documents on Human Rights edited by Ian Brownlie and Guy S. Goodwin-Gill. 6th edition.
Law Stacks K3238 .B76 2010. Older editions in Law Compact Storage.

Books

To find books dealing with international law at USF (Gleeson Library and the law library), search the Catalog from the library's home page.

The catalog searches broad descriptions of books. For good results try keyword searches following this model:

"topic words" international law

"topic words" "human rights" (use quotation marks to search exact phrases)

For example:
humanitarian international law
environ* "human rights"

Library of Congress Classification System (Class J and K)

Most books on political science and law topics have call numbers starting with J and K. In Gleeson Library, these books that you may borrow are on the 3rd Floor, South Wing.

J Political Science
JZ International Relations
K Law (General)
KB Religious Law in General
KD Law of the United Kingdom and Ireland
KDZ Law of America. North America Law of Canada
KF Law of the United States
KFA-KFW Law of U.S. States (KFC1-1199 = California)
KFX Law of U.S. Cities
KG Law of Latin America - Mexico and Central American - West Indies. Caribbean area
KH Law of South America
KJ-KKZ Law of Europe
KL-KWX Law of Asia and Eurasia, Africa, Pacific Area, and Antarctica
KZ Law of Nations (includes International Law)

Treaty Resources

Good Places to Start

These website have (or link to) the full text of multilateral treaties. Some also cover selected bilateral treaties.

Frequently-Cited Treaties - Univ. of Minn. Law Library Links to reliable online versions of over 50 major multilateral treaties, plus citation information.
University of Minnesota Human Rights Library Includes 60,000 core human rights documents, including several hundred full-text human rights treaties and other primary international human rights instruments.
EISIL - Electronic Information System for International Law (American Society of International Law) Links to relevant treaties in each of its topical sections. The Treaty Collections page links to other web-based collections of multilateral and national treaties.

UN Treaty Collection This site has an extensive collection of multilateral treaties but suffers from a cumbersome search engine. Includes the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) and the League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS).

United Nations Law Collection - HeinOnline Includes the United Nations Treaty Series, the League of Nations Treaty Series, and supporting materials. [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.]

Treaties and Agreements Library - HeinOnline Thorough collection of United States treaties from 1776 to the present. [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.]
Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy An online library of documents in law and diplomacy from the 16th to the 21st Century.
Flare Index to Treaties Details of "over 2,000 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from 1353 onwards and a number of significant bilateral treaties signed between 1353 and 1815." Has links to online text (where available) and citations to print versions.

Finding Treaty Status and Citations

These sources provide citations to treaties and, often, basic status information, such as whether the treaty is in force, which states are signatories, which states are parties, whether there any reservations, etc.

Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General Up-to-date information on signatories, parties, in-force dates, text of reservations. Includes citations to UNTS (U.N Treaty Series). Part of the free United Nations Treaty Collection.

World Treaty Index (beta) Detailed information on 20th century multilateral and bilateral treaties. Useful for finding citations to older, hard-to-find treaties. Goal is to cover all 20th century treaties; current coverage is 1945-1999. Based on work by Peter H. Rohn. World Treaty Index in print, Law Stacks KZ 1301 .R63 1983.

Multilateral Treaties: Index and Current Status By Milo Jesse Bowman & D. J. Harris. Useful for finding citations to older treaties. Last updated in 1995. In print, Law Reference JX 171 .M84 1984.

Finding United States Treaties -- Status and Citations

Use these online and print resources when you are researching treaties — multilateral or bilateral — to which the United States is a party.

Treaties in Force - U.S. Department of State Official source of status information and citations for bilateral and multilateral treaties. Current version, available in PDF format. In print from 1955 to present: Law Reference & Law Compact Storage JX 236 1783.
Treaty Actions - U.S. Department of State Updates Treaties in Force. From the Office of the Treaty Advisor.

Kavass's Guide to the United States Treaties in Force [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.] Reliable, unofficial, expanded and updated version of Treaties in Force by Igor I. Kavass & Adolf Sprudzs. In print, Law Reference JX 236 1783a.
Treaties and Agreements Library - HeinOnline [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.] Use the "Treaty Metadata Search" function to find information about treaties as well as the full text of treaties.

Finding Treaties in Full Text

Try the following sources to find the full text. Having the name of a treaty, or citation to it, is very helpful.

Multilaterals Project - Fletcher School of Diplomacy, Tufts University Texts of multilateral treaties, organized by topic. Includes treaties in the fields of environmental law, human rights, commerce and trade, laws of war and arms control, and other areas.
Treaties Collection - World Legal Information Institute Search or browse almost 30 treaty series containing either the texts or summaries of multilateral and bilateral treaties.

Of these three print sources, two — the United Nations Treaty Series and the League of Nations Treaty Series — are available to the USF community via HeinOnline's United Nations Law Collection.

United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) Covers 1947 to the present. In print, KZ 172 .T74 Law Stacks.
League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS) Covers 1920 to 1946. In print, KZ 170.5 .T74 Law Stacks.
Consolidated Treaty Series Covers 1648 to 1918. In print, KZ 120 .P35 1969 Law Stacks.

United States Treaties (multilateral and bilateral) and Foreign Relations Documents - Full Text Online Sources

No one comprehensive free web source exists for U.S. treaties. The commercial source — HeinOnline — provides the best coverage.

Senate Treaty Documents in the U.S. Serial Set [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.] Contains the text of treaties as submitted to the Senate for ratification. To search, click "Clear All," and then select just the "Serial Set." Under "Serial Set Option," select "Treaties & Conventions." 1789 to present.
Treaties - Thomas, Legislative Information of the Internet - U. S. Library of Congress Text of treaties submitted to the Senate from 1995 (104th Congress) to the present. Complete status information from 1968 (90th Congress) to the present. Partial status information from 1949 to the present.
Reporting International Agreements to Congress under Case Act (Text of Agreements) Under 1 U.S.C. §112b, the Secretary of State is required to "transmit to the Congress the text of any international agreement (including the text of any oral international agreement, which agreement shall be reduced to writing), other than a treaty, to which the United States is a party as soon as practicable after such agreement has entered into force with respect to the United States...." This site contains these reports and the agreements in full text. Coverage is 1982 to the present.

Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) Online from 1996 to the present. Official source for newer treaties, published by the U.S. Dep't of State Treaty Affairs Office.
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) Official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions that have been declassified and edited for publication covering 1861-1976. For latest edition of FRUS (1969-1976), view the edition or search FRUS on the U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian site. Also in print from 1932 Gleeson Stacks JX 233 .A3 U58

In addition to the above resources, browse the library catalog for more treaty collections.

Topical Treaty Collections

Some important topical collections of treaties include:

ECOLEX - Gateway to Environmental Law Searchable information about and, often, text of treaties (and other legal documents) related to environmental law, and especially to international environmental law.
ENTRI - Environmental Treaties "A fast, convenient, comprehensive online service for accessing multilateral environmental treaty data. Find status data for environmental treaties, treaty text and other related information easily." From CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network).

Learning More About Treaty Research

The following web sites and books offer great advice on treaty research:

Guide to Treaty Research - Columbia Law Library Explanations, advice, and links. (By Simon Canick & Beth Williams; last updated in March 2012).

Treaties - ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law Includes: links to collections of multilateral and bilateral treaties; links to treaty status information; information about commercial online treaty collections; a brief introduction to treaty research. (By Jill Watson; last updated in 2010).

Treaty Research - Georgetown Law Library Links and advice. This guide begins with a "Treaty Quick Finder" organized by party, organization, and topic. (Last updated in 2008.)

An Introduction to Sources for Treaty Research Research advice, terminology, and links. (By Mark Engsberg & Mary Beth Chappell; last updated in 2011).
Researching U.S. Treaties and Agreements Solid information from a leading expert in international law research. (By Marci Hoffman; last updated in 2001).

Judicial Decisions

International Court of Justice This website provides a complete collection of opinions in contentious cases and of advisory proceedings since 1947. See the Permanent Court of International Justice for documents from 1922-1946.
International Court of Justice Decisions - from Oxford Part of the Oxford Reports on International Courts of General Jurisdiction. [Off-campus access for USF law students, faculty, and staff.]
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Established in 1993, the ICTY oversees cases dealing with war crimes that took place during the conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990’s.

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was created to prosecute those individuals responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Rwanda between January 1, 1994 and December 31, 1994.

European Court of Human Rights Created in May 1949, by the Council of Europe, the Court rules on applications from either individuals or states concerning alleged violations of either civil or political rights created by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court's website has the Court's docket, opinions and schedules of oral arguments.

Databases for Journal Articles

Scholarly journal articles are extremely useful for finding discussions of narrow issues in international law. They will also cite to relevant treaties and cases, to sources giving evidence of customary law and state practice, and to other scholarship on the issue. The resources listed in this section will lead you to articles on the country or topic you are researching.
This guide emphasizes "indexes" — article-finding tools that allow very precise searching but do not themselves contain the full-text of articles. To find the full-text of articles, click or the USF: Find Full-Text link or check to see if your article is available at the USF libraries. Alternatively, you can search the library's Journal Finder by journal name. All database below for current USF students, faculty, and staff.

Law Journal Library -- HeinOnline Almost complete, full-text coverage of all United States law reviews and journals, in most cases starting with the first volume of the journal and including all but the most recent volume.
Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Citations to articles from 1908 to the present. Full text available for selected recent articles.
LexisNexis Academic For law review articles, choose "US Legal" on the left and then "Law Reviews."
bePress Peer-reviewed online journals in various disciplines, including law. bepress also has a free bepress Legal Repository of papers from various institutions.
JSTOR Multi-disciplinary digital archive of back issues (JSTOR generally lacks the latest three years) of hundreds of scholarly journals. The library's JSTOR subscription includes 97 law journals.
LegalTrac Citations to law review articles from 1980 to the present. Also includes citations to selected legal magazines and newspapers. Full text available for selected recent articles. and newspapers. Full text available for selected recent articles.
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Especially useful for finding citations to articles from non-US legal journals, and covers 1960 to the present, with full search capabilities from 1985 to the present. (Many of the journals it covers are in languages other than English.)

Fusion Search across the majority of the library's books and articles. Add more keywords or use the limits in the results screen to reduce the number of your results.

Selected Journals

International Legal Materials (American Society of International Law). [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.] Covers volume 1 (1962) to the present. Also available in print at the law library at Law Stacks K 9 .N57.
American Journal of International Law [For current USF students, faculty, and staff.] Covers volume 1 (1907) to present. Also available in print at the law library at Law Stacks K 1 .M456.

*This guide was largely adapted from the Zief Law Library's Public International Law and Treaty Research guides created by Lee Ryan.