Finding Indian Treaties
Subscription Treaty Databases
- SCC OnlineContains bilateral and multilateral treaties entered into by India. Treaties are arranged alphabetically and can only be browsed, not searched.
~ Go to SCC Online and login with your University of Melbourne email address in the login box marked 'IP Access' in the top right of the screen and then click the red 'sign in' button. Note: the first time you login, you will be asked to register your email address. You will not be asked to do this again, and no password is required.
~ From the SCC homepage, click on the red 'Browse Secondary Material' to access the Treaties menu.
Open Access Treaty Databases
- Indian Treaties DatabaseThe official Indian Treaties Database on the Ministry of External Affairs website reputedly provides up to date access to the full text of all Treaties/Agreements/MoUs etc.entered into by the Government of India since 1950. Treaties can be found in three ways:
~ by subject / agreement type / year / country
~ search by word/s
~ Treaties signed, ratified, acceded to, and entered into force
!~! Warning: although up to date, the Indian Treaties database is incomplete and seems to contain only bilateral agreements. - United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)The United Nations Treaty Series Online contains all multilateral and most bilateral treaties and agreements entered into by India since 1949. To find all Indian treaties:
~ select Participant from the top menu.
~ select India and (optionally) other countries from the dropdown menu.
~ click the 'Match all of these participants' radio button.
~ Click 'Search'
For citation purposes, you need to find the UNTS citation.
~ Click on the 'See Details' link for the specific treaty / agreement.
~ Scroll to 'Volume in PDF' and click on the link.
~ Find your treaty in the volume.
~ You will now have all the details you need to cite to the UNTS eg:
~ ~ Agreement establishing the Asian Coconut Community, opened for signature 12 December 1968 684 UNTS 164 (entered into force 30 July 1969)
Citing Treaty Series - AGLC4 Style
If a treaty is included in a treaty series, the treaty series should be cited rather than, for example, the UN document number. Treaties are often included in several treaty series. According to Chapter 8.4 (pp 137-138) of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, treaties should be cited in the following preferential order:
- United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)(UNTS) 1946+ (See the UNTS information in the box to the left for information on how to find and cite your treaty in the UNTS.)
- Indian Treaty SeriesAn official treaty series of a state party. For India, this is the Indian Treaty Series (INTSer) - but note that this series has not been added to since 2009. On Lii of India
- HeinOnlineInternational Legal Materials (ILM) (UniMelb staff & students only). This series is on HeinOnline (vol 1, 1962+) in the Law Journal Library collection and in JSTOR (vol 1, 1962+). This is not a treaty series but it includes treaty texts and useful introductory information about the treaties and it is an accepted method of citation. Note that JSTOR's holdings are more up to date than Hein's.
- Australian Guide to Legal CitationIf the treaty is not included in any of the above, use the official document number (such as a UN document number) to identify it, using the accepted style as described in Chapter 8 of the AGLC.
Incorporation of Treaties into Indian domestic law
India, like Australia, follows the dualist theory on the implementation of international law at domestic level (as stated in the Supreme Court in Jolly George v Bank of Cochin 1980 SCR (2) 913). International treaties do not automatically become part of national law in India. Parliament must pass legislation to implement treaties into domestic law. The Indian Constitution is silent on the status of international law in its domestic legal system, and it does not specifically obligate or authorise the judiciary to draw on international law in its decision making.
However, the Indian courts have interpreted domestic legislation as including India's obligations under international law. The Indian judiciary has thus played a proactive role in implementing India's international obligations under international treaties, especially in the field of human rights and environmental law.
For more detail, see, for example:
- Supreme Court of India JudgmentsJolly George v Bank of Cochin 1980 SCR (2) 913
- SSRN eLibrary'Implementation of international law in India: Role of the Judiciary' by Sunil Kumar Agarwal (open access full-text article)
Chapter 6: 'India' by Nihal Jayawickrama, in The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement by Call Number: eBookPublication Date: Cambridge University Press, 2009
