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History of the World Treaty Index
The World Treaty Index was first published by ABC-Clio in 1974, ten
years after its founder, Dr. Peter Rohn, envisioned a
comprehensive resource for treaty research. Under the auspices of the
Graduate School of the University of Washington and with initial funding
from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Rohn created a resource designed
to contribute to an empirical theory of international law and politics.
The electronic collection of treaty citations allowed for the presentation
of data in a variety of ways, permitting both qualitative and
quantitative investigations.
The second edition of The World Treaty Index was published in 1984
and included a number of enhancements to the database. By this time, the
resource contained over 44,000 treaty citations dating between 1900 and
1980. League of Nations treaties and treaties registered in the United
Nations Treaty Series comprised about 50% of the total, while national
treaty sources accounted for the remaining 22,000 documents. A full
description of the database can be found in the introduction to the second
edition.
Between 1984 and 1999, 25,000 additional treaty citations were added to
the database, but a third edition of the Index has not yet been
published.
(The second edition of The World Treaty Index was reprinted in 1994
by William S. Hein & Co., Inc.). Dr. Rohn retired in 1989 and
responsibility for the indexing project was assumed by Dr. Edmond Mignon
of the University of Washington Graduate School of Library and Information
Science. Dr. Mignon retired in the summer of 1999. Both he and Dr. Rohn
continue to serve as consultants on the project.
The World Treaty Index is now entering what is hoped to be a new
stage of development. It is administered under the auspices of the Human
Rights Education and Research Network by Glenda Pearson of the University
of Washington Libraries. An advisory board of renowned international law
scholars, librarians and practitioners is participating in the evaluation
of this unique resource, with the hope of bringing the World Treaty
Index to its originally envisioned conclusion---a complete and
searchable index of all 20th century treaties.
For a recent history of the development of the World Treaty Index, please
see "Rohn's World Treaty Index: Its Past and Future," by Glenda Pearson,
International Journal of Legal Information, 29, no. 3 (Winter
2001): 543-559.
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