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United Nations Research Guide

Introduction

The United Nations replaced the League of Nations in 1945. The United Nations Charter was signed on June 26, 1945 at San Francisco (3 Bevans 1153, UN Yearbook). The mandate of the United Nations includes peace and security, economic and social development, human rights, decolonization and international law. It is composed of six principle organs : the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat. Currently there are 192 member nations.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Wolff Library reference desk at 202-662-4195 or by email: intlref@law.georgetown.edu. You may also submit your question via this online form.

Background Information

The Law Library collects many books on the UN and its relationship to international law.  Search library catalog using keywords or the subject heading united nations to locate these materials. Periodicals are another excellent source of information. Consult the Periodicals Section of this guide for more information.

General Background Sources

  • About the United Nations
    Introduction to the structure and work of the UN. If you have never done research on the UN, it may be helpful to first consult the UN's Structure and Organization webpage that describes the principal organs and bodies of the United Nations.
  • Conforti, The Law and Practice of the United Nations INTL KZ4986 .C6613 2005 and as an ebook (Georgetown Only)
    Legal analysis of membership, structure, historical origins and practice. Basic information about the institutions of the UN and its activities in the current practice of international relations.
  • Everyone's United Nations INTL KZ4970 .E9
    Describes the structure, history, and procedures of the United Nations organs and specialized agencies; contains text of the Charter of the United Nations, the Statute of the International Court of Justice, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; covers over 20 years.
  • United Nations Handbook INTL REF KZ4970 .U5
    Provides up to date information on all of the organs of the UN as well as the specialized agencies. Good source for information on the purpose and structure of a particular body or agency. Updated annually.
  • The United Nations : Law and Practice INTL KZ4986 .U538 2001
  • The United Nations System and Its Predecessors INTL KZ3900 .S97 1997
    Collection of UN documents including constituent instruments and important legal acts. Also includes documents from several 19th century federations and the League of Nations.  
  • United States participation in the United Nations : report by the President to the Congress for the year for historical information INTL KZ4997.5 .U6 A32 for more current information KZ4997.5.U6 A32
    Describes the participation of the U.S. in the UN.
  • UN Chronicle INTL KZ4945 .U564; and electronically through a variety of databases (GULC only).

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  • Bennett, Historical Dictionary of the United Nations INTL REF KZ4970 .B395 1995
    Provides basic definitions.
  • Osmancyzk, The Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Relations
    INTL REF KZ4968 .O8213 2003
    Brief explanations of terms related to the United Nations as well as international law and economics. Provides full text of some documents plus full citations to documents.
  • Parry, Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (2nd edition)
    INTL REF KZ1161.P37 2004 Short articles on international law, including treaties and international organizations.

Yearbooks

  • Europa World Year Book INTL REF JN1 .E85
    Provides very detailed information about the UN and its bodies and specialized agencies.
  • Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law INTL KZ4945.M28 M28 and availably electronically (Georgetown Only)
  • Yearbook of the United Nations INTL KZ4947 .U65 and electronically from the United Nations (1946-2005) - each volume gives a detailed history of UN activities for that particular year. It includes full text of resolutions and gives useful references to important reports and documents. On the UN web portal, you can search the yearbooks by keyword or browse by year.
    . 

Documents and Publications

There are four basic types of UN documents: periodicals, sales publications, mimeographed/masthead documents, and official records.

  • Periodicals (like the UN Chronicle INTL KZ4945 .U564 and available electronically through a variety of databases (GULC only)).
  • Sales publications include yearbooks and annuals (Yearbook of the United Nations INTL KZ4947 .U65 and electronically and Yearbook on Human Rights INTL K3236.6 .Y4 and electronically 1/1946- 1/1988 through HeinOnline (GULC Only)) serials, monographs and special studies.
  • Mimeographed documents include provisional records of meetings, reports, resolutions, and other working documents of the UN organs. Some are republished in final corrected form in the official records or sales publications.
  • Official records contain the meeting records of the UN organs (usually summary records, with the exception of the records of General Assembly and First Committee and Security Council meetings which are verbatim--"proces-verbaux"), annexes contain the text of agenda items (papers submitted to the organs for discussion), and supplements contain reports of subsidiary organs and resolutions. For more information on documents, see the section above on research guides.

The best place to start your research is the online database, United Nations Document System. It is the official repository for documents published by the United Nations. The full text of documents dating back to 1992 is accessible in pdf in all official languages of the United Nations - Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Documents are stored in two databases, UN Documents, which includes documents back to 1992; and UN Resolutions, which includes resolutions of the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council and Trusteeship Council from 1946-1993. Daily Journals from New York and Vienna are also available.

If you cannot find what you need in the United Nations Document System, the next best place to look is the READEX microfiche set (in International Media), used in conjunction with AccessUN (Georgetown Law Only) To use the microfiche set, you must have the document symbol and the date of the document. Use AccessUN to find or verify the document number. Then select the drawer with the year you need, then choose the appropriate organ (General Assembly, Security Council, etc.) and look for the symbol (located at the top right corner of the fiche). A fiche copier is available in International Media as well as Media Services on the third floor of the Williams library.  Keep in mind that the specialized agency documents are not included in the document collection.

The Internet is a viable vehicle for locating the full-text of selected documents, see the UN Documentation Centre for General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, and Secretariat documents.

Document Symbols

Most UN documents collections are arranged by the document symbol. The basic principle is that documents are identified by the issuing body. The symbols are composed of capital letters and numbers. The first letter(s) indicates the main body of the UN (A/ is the General Assembly, E/ is ECOSOC, etc.). Specific symbols after the first slash indicate the sub-body within the main body (/CN is a commission, /WP is working party, etc.).

The classification system of the United Nations is explained (with lists of the abbreviations) in many of the research guides mentioned above (for example How to Find the Law KF240 .C5383 1989 and Guide to International Legal Research INTL KZ1234 .G85). The UNDOC: Current Index (MFiche UN DOCS ST/LIB/SER.M/CUM) lists new document symbols. See also the Document Symbols section of the UN web site. You can also identify committees, commissions, etc. by their document series symbols using the guide United Nations Document Series Symbols, 1946-1996, produced by the Dag Hammarskjold Library.

Document Indexes

  • United Nations Documents Index (UNDI) (1950-62) INTL KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER.E/CUM
    Indexed documents of specialized agencies; subject index leads to entry number; entry number in documents list gives document symbol and bibliographic information. (v.1-13)
  • United Nations Documents Index (UNDI) (1963-1973) INTL KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER.E CUM
    Omits coverage of specialized agency documents; subject index provides the document symbol and document symbol in documents list gives bibliographic information.
  • UNDEX (1973-1978) Issued in three series: A = subject index, B = country index INTL KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER. I/A and KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER. I/B and C = list of documents issued. Series C was commercially published: UNDEX Series "C" Cumulative Edition 1974-77 and supplement 1978. INTL KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER.I/C 1974-78
  • UNDOC : Current Index (1979-1996) INTL KZ5010 .A2 ST/LIB/SER.M and on microfiche in INTL Media
    Provides access by subject, author, and title. Provides comprehensive bibliographic information for documents; a list of Official Records and sales publications; a list of documents republished in the Official Records; and a list of new document series symbols. Issued quarterly in paper format and cumulated annually on fiche starting with 1984.
  • READEX INTL KZ4935 .R43 Electronic has developed a CD-ROM index for accessing UN documents, which can be searched by body, subject, title, document symbol, etc. INTL Media.  The web version of this index is AccessUN and it covers 1956 to present (Georgetown Law Only).
  • An index is available from the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library called UN-I-QUE (UN Info Quest).  It is a database designed to provide quick access to document symbols/sales numbers for UN materials (1946 onwards).  Full bibliographic information is not provided, see the READEX index.
  • See also the new Web version of this index, called UNBISnet- UN Bibliographic Information System. Provides for bibliographic searching of the catalogue of UN publications and documents, indexed by the main UN libraries. Voting records and speeches can also be searched.

Resolutions

Resolutions of the major organs of the United Nations are printed in various sources. In official sources, they first appear as mimeographed documents (with "RES" as part of the document symbol; for example, A/RES/48/100 or S/RES/967) (mimeographed documents are available in the International Reference Office or in the microfiche collection in International Media). These mimeographed documents are then republished in the Official Records of each organ.

General Assembly

General Assembly resolutions are compiled in the last supplement of its official records. These materials are complete in the microfiche set as well. Resolutions can be located in the following places.

Security Council

The resolutions of the Security Council appear in an unnumbered supplement to its official records. It contains a list of resolutions and decisions by number and the page where the full text will be found. Unlike GA resolutions, SC resolutions are numbered in one continuous sequence since 1946. Resolutions can be located in the following places.

Cumulative Indexes to Early UN Resolutions

For resolutions from about 1971 to the present, use the indexes mentioned above.

Treaties

For more information on locating treaties, see the Treaty Research guide.  See also the ASIL Guide to Electronic Resources for International Law, Treaties.

Online Sources

Print Sources

  • United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) INTL KZ172 .T74
    Contains both bilateral and multilateral treaties in the language of the original treaty as well as English and French if needed. Keep in mind that this is an extremely slow publication.
  • United Nations Cumulative Treaty Index INTL REF KZ171 .U512 1999
    A 15 volume index that is much more detailed than the UNTS official index.
  • Multilateral Treaties : Index and Current Status INTL REF KZ118 .M8 1984
  • Rohn, World Treaty Index INTL REF KZ173 .R63 1983
    Covers from 1900-1980.
  • Treaties in Force INTL REF KZ235 .U58
    Also available HeinOnline 1929- current (Georgetown Only) and LLMC-Digital 1955-1993(Georgetown Only) and the U.S. State Department current
  • Wiktor, Multilateral Treaty Calendar = Répertoire des traités multilatéraux, 1648-1995 INTL REF KZ118 .W55 199
  • READEX United Nations documents and publications, [microform]INTL MEDIA KZ4935 .U6 Micro * NOTE*: This set is now located in the John Wolff International and Comparative Law Library in International Media , 4th Floor, Rm 4011

Courts and Tribunals

International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice (or World Court) is the principle judicial organ of the United Nations. The ICJ Statute is an annex to the Charter of the United Nations.

  • ICJ official website
  • Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders. INTL KZ214 .I58 and on HeinOnline (Geogretown Only) published in both French (Geogretown Only) and English, 1947- 2003
  • Pleadings, Oral Arguments, Documents. INTL KZ218 .P54 Motions, briefs, and oral arguments, 1947-.
  • Yearbook INTL KZ6273 .I58 and on HeinOnline Contains summaries of judgments, advisory opinions and orders of the Court, 1947-.
  • Digest of the Decisions of the International Court of Justice, 1976-1985. INTL KZ213 .D5 1990
  • Digest of the Decisions of the International Court. INTL KZ207 .H26
  • World Court Digest. The first volume covers 1976-1985. INTL KZ213 .W57
  • International Law Reports INTL KZ199 .I58 Republishes judgments with citations to the official ICJ set.
  • Full-text judgments are available on Westlaw (Georgetown Law Only) in the INT-ICJ database from 1947 to date.

Other International Tribunals

Decisions and documents from other international courts (under the authority of the UN) are included at the following sites.  See also the United Nations Documentation: Research Guide on International Law for guidance on researching these tribunals. You may also wish to consult our War Crimes research guide for more detailed information on some of these courts.

Periodicals and Current Awareness

Periodicals

Periodicals are a very good source for information about the United Nations, its current developments, and its activities. Periodical literature is also a good place for locating citations to treaties and documents.

Below are listed a few of the most commonly used journal indexes. See our journal indexes page for a complete list. If you are new to using indexes to find articles, have a look at these two guides: Locating Journal Articles: Foreign & International and Using Articles for Legal and Non-Legal Research.

Want to find out if you can get electronic access to a journal article through the library? Check through the Library Catalog, GULLiver from the library homepage. The catalog record even tells you if a journal is available on Lexis and Westlaw. If we don't have the journal electronically, check the library catalog for a print version or request the article through interlibrary loan.

Current Awareness

Other Research Guides

Want more information about United Nations research? Listed below are a few sources which deal with the UN specifically, but they may also be helpful for research on other intergovernmental organizations.

Print Resources

  • Accidental Tourist on the New Frontier : An Introductory Guide to Global Legal Research INTL REF K85.A27 1998.  See chapter 7.
  • B. Brimmer, L. Wall, W. Chamberlin, & T. Hovet, Jr., A Guide to the Use of United Nations Documents Williams Z6481.B7 1962
  • M. Cohen & R. Berring, How to Find the Law (9th edition) Williams KF240.C538 1989. See pages 496-504.
  • M. Fetzer, United Nations Documents and Publications : A Research Guide
    INTL KZ4986 .F43 1978
  • C. Germain, Germain's Transnational Law Research INTL REF K85.G47 1991 See IV-346.
  • Guide to International Legal Research INTL KZ 1234 .G85
  • International Information : Documents, Publications, and Electronic Information of International Governmental Organizations (2nd edition) INTL REF JZ4850 .I58 1997 See chapter 2 on the UN.
  • Introduction to International Organizations INTL KZ5566 .I57 1996 See pps. 207-391.

Other Research Guides

Revised 2007 (aeb)
Updated March 2010 (LAS)

Page last saved 23-Sep-2011