A treaty is a formal agreement in writing between two or more sovereign states, governed by international law. International agreements can be referred to by different names such as conventions, charters, covenants, pacts, or statutes, but the particular term used has no legal signficance. Treaties are generally classified into two main types: bilateral, involving two states, or multilateral, with three or more participants.

Treaty Research Process

1) Use a Secondary Resource to Identify a Treaty

2) Find the Text of the Treaty (choose source depending on whether U.S. IS  a party or Might Not a party)

3) Check the Status of the Treaty (The United Nations Treaty Collection is one of the best Sources for this)
-Which Countries are parties?
-Has the Treaty "Entered into Force?"
-Has your country of interest ratified the treaty?
-Was the ratification subject to declarations, reservations, amendments, etc.?

4) If Treaty or Intention of the Parties is Ambiguous, Examine Legislative History.

a) Domestic Legislative History

-For treaties to which the U.S. is a party and has ratified the treaty, see especially Proquest Legislative Insight when U.S. implementing legislative has been passed.
-For treaties to which the U.S. is a party, but has not ratified the treaty, see especially Proquest Congressional.
-For treaties to which the U.S. in NOT a party, ratification procedures and availability of documents depends on jurisdiction.

b) Travaux Preparatoire

 -These are the official documents recording the negotiations, drafting, and discussions during the process of creating a treaty. Travaux can be difficulty to come by, and are not always available for specific treaties. A good first step is to identify the organization sponsoring the treaty (often the United Nations).
- For help researching Travaux Preparatoire, see this excellent guide from Globalex.