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Treaties & treaty law: Books

Finding ebooks and books in the Bodleian Law Library

Use the tabs above to understand how the Law Bod's collection is arranged. There is an Enquiry Desk on Level 2, just as you enter the main Reading Room: please do come and have a word if you are having any difficulty in using the library..

Help with finding books

The Law Library's collection is fully catalogued on SOLO, Oxford  University's online resource discovery tool.

Subject search terms to use in SOLO

Treaties
Treaty-making power
Treaties -- Interpretation and construction
Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969)
Commercial treaties 
Double Taxation - treaties

For those wishing to learn more about using searches, we recommend the following:

Ebooks which require an Oxford SSO for remote access include:

Resources on the free web available to all with access to the internet

The Bodleian Law Library shelves its current collection of public international law on Level 3, one floor above the entrance level. This is accessed by either stairs or the lift.
The section with shelf marks beginning Internat 670 has books specifically on treaty law, both theory and practice.

If the treaty you are interested in relates to a particular area of public international law, commentary relating to it will be shelved in that subject area. For example, books commentating on commercial and tax treaties may be shelved on Level 3 in the section with shelf marks starting Internat 590, which gathers together works on international economic law.

Books about European Union treaties - the basis of the EU's constitution will be shelved in another section of Level 3 among the European Union law books with shelf marks beginning Euro Comm

Table of Contents of above book:
Ch 1 Comparative Approach to Treaty Law and Practice ;
Ch 2 Austria ; Ch 3 Canada ; Ch 4 Chile ; Ch 5 China ; Ch 6 Colombia; Ch 7 Egypt ; Ch 8 France; Ch 9 Germany ; Ch 10 India ; Ch 11 Israel ;
Ch 12 Japan ; Ch 13 Mexico ; Ch 14 Netherlands ; Ch 15 Russia ; Ch 16 S.Africa; Ch 17 Switzerland; Ch 18 Thailand; Ch 19 UK; Ch 20 USA

Information on the free web

The official website of a nation's treaty office, foreign affairs department or official gazette may include in its website an overview (at least) of how a treaty becomes law in that jurisdiction.

Ratification of Treaties in the United Kingdom

Ponsonby Rule 1924 - 2010

The Ponsonby Rule was the Parliamentary convention which gave time for  treaties to be scrutinised  by parliament prior to ratification

The Bodleian's Official Papers collection is on the ground floor of the Bodleian Law Library. It is accessible during Law Library opening hours via either the internal library stairs or the library lift.
There you will find (among other things)
a comprehensive set of British parliamentary papers from 1801 to the present
a considerable collection of United Nations publications

Please see the specialist guides below, which also indicate where many of these may be found online

Useful related commentary

Further guidance on particular aspect

Please  visit other pages in this guide if you are interested in:

Recommend a book

If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the print or ebook you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).

Inter-library requests

If the Bodleian Libraries don't have the book you are looking for, we may be able to source it through Oxford's inter-library request service.