1 In his specialized studies, while preparing his unique work World Treaty Index (Santa Barbara, Calif., ABC Clio, Inc., 1974, 5 volumes) with its accompanying volume Treaty Profiles (Santa Barbara, Calif., ABC Clio, Inc., 1976) Professor Peter H. Rohn established that the United States is by far the world's largest treaty maker, having concluded many more treaties than any other state. See, for example, his article “Canada in the United Nations Treaty Series: A Global Perspective,” 4 The Canadian Yearbook of International Law 102–130, at 112 (1966).Google Scholar

2 Current documentation appears in daily State Department Press Releases, the weekly Department of State Bulletin, the annual document collection American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, with its predecessors – A Decade of American Foreign Policy: Basic Documents, 1941–49, and American Foreign Policy, 1950–1955: Basic Documents, while the permanent historical record of U.S. foreign affairs is prepared and published by the State Department Historical Office in the series Foreign Relations of the United States, appearing regularly since 1861. For these and other State Department publications consult Major Publications of the Department of State, An Annotated Bibliography, issued by the Bureau of Public Affairs in 1971 (Dept. of State Publication 7843). A general annotated Foreign Affairs Bibliography, issued in ten year cumulations by the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York (the volume for 1962-1972, compiled by J. Kreslins and published in 1976 by R. R. Bowker & Co. in New York, is the latest available) includes a chapter on international law, and is an indispensable aid to researchers in foreign affairs. The Department of State also maintains an Automated Document System in which some 600,000 documents (diplomatic notes, memoranda, reports, etc.) pertaining to U.S. foreign relations are entered each year. The system also contains special “Fact Sheets” on some 155 countries of the world and the European Communities. This computerized data bank is maintained and continuously updated by the Department's Foreign Affairs Reference and Documents Center and is available to U.S. government agencies twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. According to information published in 2 Government Publications Review 295 (1975), the Automated Document System is not, however, accessible to the general public.Google Scholar

3 Thus, for example, complete information on tax treaties, including the latest developments, appears in two privately published loose-leaf services: Tax Treaties, published by Commerce Clearing House, and Federal Tax Treaties and Related Matters, published by Prentice-Hall; see the excellent article by Frank Lukes, “An Introduction to Research on International Tax Agreements,” 66 Law Library Journal 72–80 (1973).Google Scholar

4 This unique system has been studied by numerous authors, and is the subject of special courses in American law schools. There are a number of publications used as textbooks for instruction in legal research techniques in the U.S., among which the two most popular are: How to Find the Law. 7th ed. Morris L. Cohen, General Editor. St. Paul, Minn., West Publishing Co., 1976, and Fundamentals of Legal Research, by J. Myron Jacobstein and Roy M. Mersky. Mineola, N.Y., The Foundation Press, 1977. Both works include excellent chapters on international law materials. For a general discussion of problems in the area of research on treaties, see Adolf Sprudzs, Treaty Sources in Legal and Political Research: Tools, Techniques and Problems – The Conventional and the New. Tucson, Arizona, The University of Arizona Press, 1971 (2nd print. 1973).Google Scholar

5 The problem has been under discussion for many years and is the subject of numerous scholarly contributions, as well as hearings in the Congress. For the latest hearings and references to literature see, Congressional Review of International Agreements. Hearings before the Subcommittee on International Security and Scientific Affairs of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, Ninety-Fourth Congress. Second Session. Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.Google Scholar

6 Discussion of the complexity of the involvement of the many different government agencies in the conduct of U.S. foreign relations is outside the scope of this article. A reference, however, to the U.S. Government Organization Manual, published every year by the U.S. Government Printing Office, may be appropriate here, since this extremely valuable reference tool provides quick and reliable answers on the functions, structure and personnel of all agencies of the Executive Branch, as well as brief coverage of the Congress and the Courts. A concise description of the organization and functions of the U.S. Department of State is available in Thomas S. Estes and E. Allan Lightner, Jr., The Department of State. New York, Praeger, 1976.Google Scholar

7 “Circular 175 Procedure”; for its text see A. W. Rovine, ed., Digest of United States Practice in International Law, 1974, pp. 199–215, which was approved in a revised version on July 24, 1974, by the Department of State.Google Scholar

8 See, 11 FAM 700, “Treaties and other International Agreements” (in the Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual – FAM), as published in Congressional Review of International Agreements, pp. 391–409, mentioned in footnote no. 5. See also footnote no. 7.Google Scholar

9 For a very thoroughly documented discussion of the “prominent part that the Office of the Legal Adviser plays in the conduct of international relations of the United States” and its various functions see, Richard B. Bilder, “The Office of the Legal Adviser: The State Department Lawyer and Foreign Affairs,” 56 The American Journal of International Law 633–684 (1962).Google Scholar

10 For a somewhat dated, but still very useful description of the functions and procedures of the Treaty Section, see W. V. Whittington, “Treaties and Other International Agreements: Procedure, Formalities, and the Information Facilities of the Department of State,” 10 Department of State Bulletin 445–455 (1944); see also a concise statement on the Treaty Section provided by the Department of State in a UNITAR publication, Wider Acceptance of Multilateral Treaties, New York, UNITAR, 1969, pp. 211–213.Google Scholar

11 11 FAM 750.5a, as published in Congressional Review of International Agreements, p. 409.Google Scholar

12 Sprudzs, op. cit., p. 27.Google Scholar

13 Kavass, I. I. und Sprudzs, A., UST Cumulative Index, 1950–1970. Buffalo, N.Y., William S. Hein & Co., 1973. 4 vols. A supplementary UST Cumulative Index, 1971–1975 is in the press at the time of writing and will appear in 1977 or 1978.Google Scholar

14 There is also a privately published cumulative index to this series, similar to the one mentioned in the preceding footnote, which permits access by treaty number, by date of signature, by country and by topic. It gives text references not only to the volumes in the Bevans collection but also to the Statutes at Large, Malloy's, Miller's collection and other sources; see I. I. Kavass and M. A. Michael, United States Treaties and Other International Agreements Cumulative Index, 1776–1949. Buffalo, N.Y., William S. Hein & Co., 1975. 4 vols.Google Scholar

15 The annual Treaties in Force does not list multilateral treaties by date of signature, but only under subject. To facilitate finding such treaties by date, this writer compiled a Chronological Index to Multilateral Treaties in Force for the United States (as of Jan. 1, 1972), which was published by the University of Chicago Law School in 1972. With the forthcoming UST Index supplement, the UST Cumulative Index, 1971–1975 (see footnote 13), the usefulness of this adjunct to the Treaties in Force will be considerably diminished.Google Scholar

16 One of the most useful explanations of treaty research problems in U.S. sources is still the article by C. J. Hynning, “Treaty Law for the Practitioner,” 23 The University of Chicago Law Review 36–75 (1955/56).Google Scholar

17 C. J. Hynning, “Sources of International Law,” 34 Chicago-Kent Law Review 116–135, at 135 (1955/56).Google Scholar

18 See footnote no. 2, above.Google Scholar

19 Restatement of the Law Second-Foreign Relations Law of the United States, St. Paul, Minn., American Law Institute Publishers, 1965.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., p. XI.Google Scholar

21 For a complete description of these digests see, A. W. Rovine, “U.S. International Law Digests: Some History and a New Approach,” 67 American Journal of International Law 314–319 (1973).Google Scholar

22 Published between 1963 and 1973 by the Department of State.Google Scholar

23 Started in 1973 by A. W. Rovine and now published by the Department of State annually.Google Scholar

24 Thus, for example, the United States-Mexico Treaty on the Execution of Penal Sentences, done at Mexico City, November 25, 1976, but not yet ratified, was published in the April, 1977 issue of the American Journal of International Law, pp. 393–396.Google Scholar

25 There is also a private series of selected international law cases, edited by the late Francis Deak, and currently published by Oceana as American International Law Cases, 1783–1968, which may be of special interest because of its systematic subject arrangement. The well-known series International Law Reports, formerly the Annual Digest and Report of Public International Law Cases, also includes reports of many American court decisions.Google Scholar

26 The most recent survey conducted with the help of the Ford Foundation was carried out in 1974: The Practical State of Teaching and Research in International Law, 1974, by Michael Cardozo, with an introduction by Richard R. Baxter, subtitled, A Report for the American Society of International Law, was published by the ASIL in 1977, and covered the preceding decade.Google Scholar

27 Cardozo, The Practical State of Teaching and Research in International Law, 1974, p. 29.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 29–30.Google Scholar

A current list of student edited journals on international law includes:Google Scholar

ASILS International Law Journal (Association of Student International Law-Societies), 1977–.Google Scholar

Boston College International and Comparative Law Journal, 1977–.Google Scholar

Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 1975–.Google Scholar

California Western International Law Journal, 1970–.Google Scholar

Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, 1968–.Google Scholar

Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 1961–.Google Scholar

Cornell International Law Journal, 1968–.Google Scholar

Denver Journal of International Law and Policy, 1971–.Google Scholar

Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 1970–.Google Scholar

Harvard International Law Journal (first seven volumes known as Harvard International Law Club Bulletin), 1959–.Google Scholar

Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, 1977.Google Scholar

International School of Law Review, (Washington, D.C.) 1976–.Google Scholar

International Trade Law Journal (University of Maryland School of Law), 1975–.Google Scholar

Journal of International Law and Economics (George Washington University National Law Center), (first five volumes known as Studies in Law and Economic Development), 1966–.Google Scholar

Journal of Space Law (University of Mississippi Law Center), 1973–.Google Scholar

Law and Policy in International Business (Georgetown University Law Center), 1969–.Google Scholar

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, 1968–.Google Scholar

North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 1976–.Google Scholar

Stanford Journal of International Studies, 1966–.Google Scholar

Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce, 1972–.Google Scholar

Texas International Law Journal (volume 1 known as Journal of the University of Texas International Law Society and Texas International Law Forum), 1965–.Google Scholar

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law (first four volumes known as Vanderbilt International), 1967–.Google Scholar

Virginia Journal of International Law (first two volumes known as Journal of the John Bassett Moore Society of International Law), 1960–.Google Scholar

Yale Studies in World Public Order, 1974–.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., p. 40: 1) William W. Bishop, Jr., International Law, Cases and Materials (Little, Brown & Co., 1971) in 43 law schools and 26 political science departments; 2) Noyes E. Leach, Covey T. Oliver, Joseph Modeste Sweeney, Cases and Materials on the International Legal System (The Foundation Press, 1970) in 46 law schools and 10 political science departments; and 3) Wolfgang Friedmann, Oliver J. Lissitzyn, Richard C. Pugh, Cases and Materials on International Law (West Publishing, Co., 1969) in 32 law schools and 20 political science departments.Google Scholar