Treaties in Force

One of the most essential tools for finding treaties to which the United States is a signatory is Treaties in Force. Published annually since 1950 by the Department of State, it includes only treaties currently in force.

Part 1 contains bilateral treaties, arranged by country and, under country, by topic. Citations are given to the full text of the treaty as published in Statutes at Large (from 1789-1873) or Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States, as well as other treaty collections. Part 2 contains multilateral treaties and other agreements that are arranged by topic. Citations are given to the full text of the treaty. An interesting component of Treaties in Force is that it also includes all U.S.-Native American Treaties.

Once you have the treaty name, you can then easily locate the full text via the Internet, WESTLAW or LEXIS. New York University has a very good website that links the user to a multitude of treaty sites. The Avalon Project at Yale has selected full-text treaties beginning in the 18th century WESTLAW has a treaty file (USTREATIES) that begins coverage in 1979. LEXIS has the Oceana Treaties Series that begins coverage in 1783 (INTLAW;USTRY).