Fonds comprises Ronald St. John Macdonald's records regarding his personal, academic, and professional activities as a jurist, judge, and professor. Records include those related to Macdonald's involvement with Osgoode Hall, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, the European Court of Human Rights, the Hague, Peking University, World Academy of Arts and Science, Canadian Council of International Law, United Nations, Institute of International Law, African Society of International Law, British Institute of International Law, Canadian Institute of International Law, International Law Association, and others. Records types include correspondence; meeting minutes and agendas; research materials; photographs; newsletters; newspaper clippings; manuscripts; and off-prints.

Series comprises correspondence regarding Macdonald's professional and academic involvement with institutions including Osgoode Hall, University of Western Ontario, University of Toronto, Dalhousie University, the European Court of Human Rights, the Hague, Peking University, World Academy of Arts and Science, Canadian Council of International Law, United Nations, Institute of International Law, African Society of International Law, British Institute of International Law, Canadian Institute of International Law, International Law Association, and others. Series also contains correspondence between Ronald St. John Macdonald and individuals including Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, Paul E. Martin, Jean Chrétien, Elisabeth Mann Borgese, Wang Tieya, A. Donat Pharand, and others.

File contains unsorted correspondence with different individuals, including Krystyna Kowalik-Banczyk, R.P. Anand, Dieter Tietz, Jeremy Thomas, Hugo Caminos, Peter H. Rohn, H.D. Hicks, W.A. MacKay, Matthew Garfield, Martin Cohn, Andrew J. Peter, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Richard N. Gardner, Paul E. Martin, Stephen Hanson, Gerald A. Beaudoin, H. Wade MacLauchlan, J.D. Arnup, H. David Archibald, Ian G. Baxter, M.I. Bateman, G.V.V. Nicholls, Colonel Wendell Blanchard, J.F. Edmonds, Ivan L. Head, J.S. Nutt, M.B. Dymond, Eiichi Fukatsu, L. Brothers, John R. Cartwright, Diana Maughan, Amber Pashuk, Alexandre Kiss, Reem A. Bahdi, Wolgang Strasser, Tauno Bergholm, A. Ch. Kiss, Eileen Janzen, Suzanne Lalonde, Marianne Scott, Manuel Rama-Montaldo, Donat Pharand, Walter Truett Anderson, Barry L. Mawhinney, Hans Corell, and others, regarding a wide range of topics. File includes the American Society of International Law newsletter of March and May 1994, the American Society of International Law newsletter vol. 21, issue 3, of May and July 2005, the Society of Legal Scholars newsletter of winter 2003, the Canadian Council on International Law bulletin vol. 27, no. 2, of spring 2001, the Canadian Council on International Law bulletin vol .31, no. 1 and 2, of spring and summer 2005, a United Nations General Assembly reports of 1965 and 1970, a photograph of Ronald St. John Macdonald with an unidentified man in 2001, a photograph of Ronald St. John Macdonald receiving his Doctor of Laws degree at McGill University in 1988, a photograph of Ronald St. John Macdonald with B.L. Laskin and J.B. Milner in 1965, annotated typescripts, handwritten notes, and newspaper clippings.