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Treaties and United Nations Materials

Treaties, the Charter, resolutions, UN documents and the ILC Yearbook.

Chapter 10 covers international material, and it says at the outset that it deals only with the more commonly used sources. A form that is not there is not an omission; it is the chapter’s stated scope.

Treaties

A treaty name is not italicised, which makes it almost unique in this chapter.

Give the name, the treaty series, then a bracket carrying the date it was opened for signature or signed, and the date it entered into force.

Treaty name series (opened for signature date, entered into force date), pinpoint.

2United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1582 UNTS 95 (opened for signature 20 December 1988, entered into force 11 November 1990), art 5.

Parties

Only a bilateral treaty names its parties, joined by an en dash, and not even then where the parties are already in the name (r 10.1.1(b)).

Bilateral
Agreement on Extradition, Israel–Italy 1582 UNTS 95 (signed 20 December 1988, entered into force 11 November 1990).

No parallel citations

r 10.1.1(c) allows one treaty series only. A treaty not yet in force may appear in no series at all, and that is fine.

The Charter and other constitutive documents

The founding instruments of the United Nations are cited by name and provision, with nothing else.

4Charter of the United Nations, art 27.

Resolutions

A resolution is the organ, the number and the year. A Security Council resolution generally has no title, and where a resolution number carries a session number that session number is dropped (r 10.4.2(a)).

With a title
Universal Declaration of Human Rights GA Res 217A (1948), art 2.
Without
SC Res 1373 (2001).

Other United Nations material

Everything else the United Nations publishes is cited by its document number and date (r 10.4.3).

7Fatma Zohra Ksentini Report of the Economic and Social Council for 2005 UN Doc A/60/3 (15 August 2005) at [63].

The ILC Yearbook

The Yearbook of the International Law Commission has its own form under r 10.4.4.

8Diplomatic Protection – First report on diplomatic protection [2000] vol 2, pt 1 YILC 205.

Last reviewed 6 August 2026