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Treaties and International Agreements: U.S. Treaties

A guide to researching treaties and international agreements.

Identifying Current Treaties

Treaties in Force.  United States Dept of State.

This annual publication lists and very briefly summarizes all U.S. treaties and agreements still in force, arranged by country and subject. Includes both bilateral and multilateral treaties and provides (when available) citations to United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) and Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS) numbers. The primary use of Treaties in Force is verification of the existence of a treaty. 

Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements

Ref KZ 4968 .O84 2002

  • v. 1. A to F -- v. 2. G to M -- v. 3. N to S -- v. 4. T to Z and index.

Guide to the United States Treaties in Force

This index updates Treaties in Force and includes treaties not officially published.

Current Treaty Index

This index lists current treaties and agreements published in TIAS as well as treaties without TIAS numbers.

Historical U.S. Treaties

United States Statutes at Large

  • Ref KF50 .A3
    • v. 8 contains text of all treaties from 1776-1845.  Subsequent volumes have treaties for that time period. 
    • v. 16 contains text of all treaties with native american populations.
    • v. 64, part 3 has a list of treaties arranged by country and topic.

United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST)

  • Annex JX 231 .A3
    • Became the official source for Treaties and Agreements in 1950. Several volumes are published annually, each with a non-cumulative subject and country index. Note that there is currently an 8-10 year lag time between ratification and official publication in UST.  UCSB Holdings from v. 1 (1950) to v. 35 (1984).

Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS)

  • GIC US S 9.10: [no.] (1993 +)
  • Please note, you will need to know the TIAS number to find the full location.  Consult Treaties in Force to obtain the TIAS Number for any given treaty or act.

Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776-1949 (Bevans, ed.)

  • JX 236 1968 .A5 (v.1-13)
    • v.1-4 contain the text of multilateral treaties and agreements in chronological order by date of signature.
    • v.5-12 includes bilateral treaties and agreements in alphabetical order by country.
    • v.13 has a cumulative country and subject index.
    • Supercedes Miller and Malloy.

Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America (Miller, ed.)

  • JX 236 1931 (v. 1-8)
    • v.1. Finding Aids
    • v.2. Documents 1-40: 1776-1818.
    • v.3. Documents 41-79: 1819-1835.
    • v.4. Documents 80-121: 1836-1846.
    • v.5. Documents 122-150: 1846-1852. Document 151: 1799.
    • v.6. Documents 152-172: 1852-1855.
    • v.7. Documents 173-200: 1855-1858.
    • v.8. Documents 201-240: 1858-1863.
    • Superceded by Bevans.

Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols and Agreements between the United States and Other Powers, 1776-1937 (Malloy, ed.)

  • JX 236 1910
    • v.1-2 1776-1909, compiled by William M. Malloy and issued as Senate doc. 357, 61st Cong., 2d sess.
    • v.3 1910-1923, issued as Senate doc. 348, 67th Cong., 4th sess.
    • v.4 1923-1937, issued as Senate doc. 134, 75th Cong., 3d sess., contains a chronological index and an alphabetical index to the contents of v. 1-4.
    • Superceded by Bevans.

List of Treaties Submitted to the Senate, 1789 - 1934

  • Ref JX 236 1934
    • Chronological listing of treaties submitted to the US Senate.  Provides citations for US Statutes and UST numbers.

U.S. Treaties and Agreements

This section will deal with U.S. Treaties and Agreements, specifically between the United States and one other country.  For treaties with more then one party, please refer to the Multinational tab. 

If you are new to U.S. Treaty Research, try this guide from the Library of Congress:

There are a number of options available for researching historical treaties.  It is recommended that you consult the historical volumes of Treaties in Force to obtain UST and TIAS numbers, or consult the Bevans series if you are working with material up to 1949.

For more information about researching the US Statutes at Large, try our US Statutes guide.