A new digital version of World Treaty Index (WTI) has been released in beta by Michael J. Bommarito II and Daniel Martin Katz, both of the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Complex Systems and creators of the Computational Legal Studies blog, and Paul Poast of the University of Michigan Department of Political Science.
The new digital WTI is a revised version of Peter H. Rohn’s World Treaty Index, the last print edition of which appears to have been published by William S. Hein & Co.
The editors describe the content of the new digital WTI as follows:
The currently available product provides access to information on more than 50,000 bilateral and multilateral treaties formed between 1945 and 1997. When full coverage for the 20th century is complete, the database should feature in excess of 80,000 agreements. [...]
By the end of 2010, we will add (1) all treaties formed between 1900 and 1944, (2) all treaties formed between 1998 and 1999, and (3) a list of all parties to a given multilateral agreement. If you know of an agreement that is not ultimately featured on the site please contact us and we will be happy to add it to the list.
Respecting future enhancements to WTI, the editors write:
Planned extensions include bringing the World Treaty Index forward so as to provide coverage up to 2010. In addition, we plan to collect information regarding treaty terminations. Finally, we would like to enhance the granularity of our topic codes and allow for agreements with multiple dimensions to feature multiple topic codes.
The editors’ post announcing the system describes several sample searches that demonstrate the new WTI’s capabilities. The editors invite users to try the new WTI and provide comments.
Tags: Computational Legal Studies, Daniel Martin Katz, International law information systems, Legal databases, Legal information retrieval, Michael James Bommarito, Paul Poast, Public international law information systems, Treaty information systems, World Treaty Index
