The Library and Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs count among the most famous and precious on earth. Besides the evident political or cultural information on the relationship between France and the rest of the world, many documents of an indirectly or directly relevant legal nature are kept in the Ministry's dépôts in either La Courneuve or Angers (consular archives).
In 2010 and 2011, the Ministry signed a cooperation agreement with Gallica, the Bibliothèque nationale de France's praised and omnipresent digital library. Within this framework, 312 "livres jaunes" have been scanned, ranging from 1799 to 1947. These series contains reports on French foreign policy to parliament and French or foreign leaders.
This only adds to the importance of Gallica as a source for historians of international law. Many standard manuals on public international law, but also journals (Revue de droit étranger, Revue de droit international et de législation comparée, Revue d'histoire diplomatique) are available in fulltext, for free, from anywhere in the word. A precious resource in a time of predatory pricing for commercial databases.
