This page highlights strategies for USD cite-checkers in locating treaties, international cases (e.g. International Court of Justice), United Nations, or European Union. If you are looking for the laws and cases of other countries, see the Foreign Materials page.
The general rules for citing international materials are found in Bluebook Rule 21. This includes treatises and other international agreements (Rule 21.4), international law cases (Rule 21.5), United Nations sources (Rule 21.7), and European Union sources (Rule 21.9), among others.
Rule 20.2 discusses citations of non-English-language documents.
If you have a treaty without a citation, the first step is to find the correct citation using either Google or FLARE Index to Treaties.
Treaties where the United States is a party or multilateral treaties (three or more parties) are generally easier to find. If your treaty has a Stat., U.S.T., T.I.A.S., U.N.T.S., L.N.T.S., or I.L.M. citation (e.g. 32 I.L.M. 289), use the database HeinOnline to retrieve your treaty in PDF.
Bilateral treaties (between two parties) where the U.S. is not one of the parties, can be difficult to find. Try and locate the treaty through the governmental body in charge of foreign affairs. In the United States, the State Department maintains a list of Treaties in Force. In Australia for example, a similar list is maintained by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Only if no other formal treaty citation is available may you cite a book or periodical.
International courts are courts that have the ability to settle disputes between countries. These are separate and distinct from foreign courts such as the Canadian Supreme Court.
While many of these decisions are available on Westlaw, it is generally preferred that you cite to the official print reporters, or if not available, to the court's official website. See Bluebook Rules 21.5.1-21.5.9 for clarification.
For International Court of Justice (I.C.J.) and European Court of Justice (E.C.J.) cases, use HeinOnline for PDFs or the court websites. ICJ cases are located in the United Nations Collection within HeinOnline and ECJ cases are in the Foreign and International Law Resources Collection.
There are many other international courts of law including (but not limited to) the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), and several specialized International Criminal Tribunals like the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Many U.N. documents are available online in PDF through either:
Tip: Use the U.N. Doc. symbol to locate your document (e.g. S/RES/986) rather than keyword searching.
The Official Records are the preferred source for United Nations citations, but masthead documents and documents drawn from U.N. websites are acceptable.
Special types of U.N. documents:
Where can I find the Official Journal online?
The Official Journal is also available online in the following databases:
LexisNexis
Westlaw
The LRC's International Law guide has additional information on locating and researching international law sources, including the European Union Official Journal and customary law.