Digests / Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Research Guides & Bibliographies
The official record of United States practice in matters pertaining to international law is available in various digests, which have been published under the auspices of the Department of State.
1. Digest of International Law, online. Compiled by G. H. Hackworth. Washington, GOP, 1940-1944, 8 volumes. Covers the years 1906-1939. General index and list of cases in Volume 8, but no document index. (Also available on paper in the Law Library.)
2. Digest of International Law, prepared by Marjorie M. Whiteman. Washington, GOP, 1963-1973. 15 volumes. Successor to Hackworth's, covers the period of 1940-1960. Volume 15 contains the general index, list of abbreviations used, list of cases cited and a list of main entries. Disadvantage--uneven coverage. Each volume includes material compiled up to its date of publication, but the individual volumes were published out of order over a ten-year period.
3. Digest of United States Practice in International Law. U.S. Department of State, 1973-1980. Annual; Cont’d by Cumulative Digest of United States Practice in International. 1981-1988; Cont’d by Digest of United States Practice in International Law. 2000- . Continues Whiteman's digest. Similar in form to former, but differs in content as it is limited to mainly noting the record in vital areas of international law during the calendar year and to the United States practice. Also available online here.
4. American Society of International Law. American Journal of International Law. Contains in each quarterly issue a section "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law." Prepared by the Department of State specialists and follows the same arrangement as the Annual Digest.
5. International Legal Materials, bi-monthly. Publishes important texts, documents, treaties, decisions, regulations, etc., relating to inter-national law and makes available such documentation well ahead of most other publications. Also available online.
Until 1981, there was no English-language reference work covering the field of international law generally. The first such tool began publication under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law under the title:
1. Encyclopedia of Public International Law. 1992. 4 volumes. The Encyclopedia comprises 1300 articles dealing with all aspects of public international law, in alphabetical order, covering broadly a specific subject area.
2. International Encyclopedia of Laws. 1992- . This multi-volume set comprises laws of foreign countries in many subject areas, including civil procedure, commercial and economic law, etc.
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