COMING SOON
U.S. State Commitments with Foreign Governments
Edited by Ryan Scoville and Mitchell Knief, this is a groundbreaking collection of more than 600 legal and political commitments between U.S. states and foreign governments. Most have never before been published—online or in print.
About U.S. State Commitments with Foreign Governments
The most comprehensive source ever published—available in a print & online database format!
U.S. states frequently enter into arrangements with foreign governments to cooperate on issues ranging from economic development to environmental protection. For example, in 2017, California signed an agreement with Quebec to limit CO2 emissions. In 2019, New Jersey and the Indian state of Gujarat adopted a sister-state agreement to foster cultural and economic ties. And in 2022, Indiana and the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding to expand trade relations.
Available in print and online database formats, U.S. State Commitments with Foreign Governments provides the full text of hundreds of these kinds of arrangements. To compile the collection, the editors filed over 650 freedom-of-information requests, including one with every major administrative agency in each of the fifty states. State officials responded by delivering copies of more than 600 commitments totaling approximately 3,000 pages. The book contains a curated set of roughly one quarter of these commitments, along with notations that explain context, highlight significant legal issues, and identify helpful academic sources. The online database includes the full collection and will receive periodic updates in the future.
This is the most comprehensive publication of its kind. It serves as an innovative, subnational analogue to official compilations of international agreements to which the United States is a party—namely, United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST) and the Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS). And it is an essential resource for scholars of international law and U.S. foreign relations law, political scientists who study paradiplomacy, federal and state policymakers, and the voting public.
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Why Study These Commitments?
Uncover a developing diplomatic frontier.
Analyze an opaque practice.
Assess practical benefits and risks.
Understand the law in practice.
About the Editor
Ryan Scoville
Ryan Scoville is a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, where he teaches and writes on U.S. foreign relations law and international law. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Michigan Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, European Journal of International Law, and the Yale Journal of International Law, and has been cited in a number of national media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. Professor Scoville holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Browse by Subject
Users can browse the database by State (U.S.), Country, or Subject. Commitments are organized into the following 14 subject areas:
- Agriculture
- Education
- Emergency Management
- Environment & Natural Resources
- Finance
- General
- Insurance
- Law Enforcement
- Miscellaneous
- Public Health
- Scientific & Technical Cooperation
- Tourism
- Trade & Investment
- Transportation
Using the Commitment Index
HeinOnline has created a custom Commitment Index tool to help maximize your research within this database. This tool allows researchers to choose a variety of ways to search, by Text, Keywords, Title, Commitment Number, State, Country, Description, Subject, and Date. Additionally, users can restrict results within a date range and change how results are sorted.
Pricing
Pricing information coming soon.