A treaty series is an officially published collection of treaties and other international agreements.
The League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS) was a result of article 18 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, which stated:
Every treaty or international engagement entered into hereafter by any Member of the League shall be forthwith registered with the Secretariat and shall as soon as possible be published by it. No such treaty or international engagement shall be binding until so registered.
The LNTS began publication in 1920, and was terminated in 1946, following the dissolution of the League of Nations. It contains 205 volumes with a total of 4,834 treaties. A nine-volume index has been created.[1]
Following the termination of that series, the registration of League of Nations treaties passed to the United Nations.[2]
The United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)[3] is the result of article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, which states as follows:On 14 December 1946, the United Nations General Assembly passed resolution 97, which laid the rules for the registration of international agreements by the UN Secretariat.[4]
The UNTS is by far the largest collection of treaties, running to over 3,000 volumes containing 158,000 treaties from 1946. Its predecessor was the League of Nations Treaty Series (LNTS).[5]
See main article: List of Council of Europe treaties. The Council of Europe Treaty Series (CETS) was established in 1949.
Treaties and international agreements were formally published in Statutes at Large (Stat.) until 1948. The Department of State also published a number of collections relating specifically to treaties and other agreements:
After 1948, agreements have been published as Senate Documents (S.Doc.), House Documents (H.Doc.) or in the Federal Register (F.R. or F.Reg.). Official compilations include:
For convenience, a number of private collections of treaties have also been published:
United Kingdom treaties and international agreements are published as command papers, along with a large number of other government documents. For ease of reference, command papers relating to treaties are given a second "Treaty Series" number, which is sometimes referred to as the United Kingdom Treaty Series (UKTS). For example, the Treaty on Open Skies was published as Cm. 5537, but also had the Treaty Series number 26 for 2002, abbreviated as [2002] UKTS 26.
Treaties in force for Canada are published in the Canada Treaty Series.[7]
See also: List of Australian treaties. Australian treaties are collected together in the Australian Treaty Series (ATS), starting with the Treaty of Versailles, [1920] ATS 1.
New Zealand treaties are published in New Zealand Treaty Series (NZTS), starting publication from 1944.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs has published a list of all treaties of Ireland on its website, titled Irish Treaty Series. At present, all treaties from 2002 are available online.[8]
The State of Israel has its own official collection of treaties, titled in Hebrew "Kitvey Amana" ("Treaty Writings" in Hebrew, also referred to as "Israel Treaty Series"). It includes every international agreement either signed or acceded to by the Israeli government.[9] [10]
The University of South Pacific in Port Vila, Vanuatu began a publication titled Pacific Islands Treaty Series, giving the texts of treaties concluded by small states in the Pacific Ocean.