gnevar

James Hollway

2019-07-15

“Data! Data! Data! I can’t make bricks without clay!”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

About the data

The gnevar database includes several related datasets:

State actors

• stat_actor includes 323 unique states, 0 of which have start dates before most other databases as can be seen here. You can find out more about the structure and missings of the data here.

Trade agreements

• trad_agree includes 873 unique trade agreements.
• trad_membs includes 4557 states’ membership in trade agreements.

Military alliances

• ally_agree includes 799 unique military alliances. You can find out more here.
• ally_membs includes 2397 states’ membership in military alliances.

Fisheries agreements

• fish_agree includes 0 unique fisheries agreements, 0 with full text. You can find out more here.

Water agreements

• watr_agree includes 0 unique water agreements, 0 with full text. You can find out more here.

About the functions

gnevar also includes a range of functions for programmatically constructing and describing the data. Some of them may be handy for further data wrangling and so I include them here too:

consolidate, entitle, enum, interleave, lingua, overlaps, rearrange, recent, regime, repaint, resequence, reunite, snap, transmutate

Sources

gnevar relies on a number of different data sources.

Multilateral Treaties

1. Treaty indexes can be found in:

• Status of Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary General
• United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)
• United Nations Cumulative Treaty Index

2. Full-text sources can be found in:

• Consolidated Treaty Series (CTS)
• United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)
• International Legal Materials (ILM) is available at LexisAdvance and WestlawNext, and HeinOnline
• Electronic Information System for International Law (EISL)

3. Specialised collections of treaties can be found in each area of treaties, for example:

• Universal Human Rights Instruments provides the core human rights treaties
• World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) provides a comprehensive set of treaties pertaining to intellectual property

Bilateral Treaties

1. General approach:

• United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS)
• Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) is provided through the American Society of International Law (ASIL)

2. If the U.S. is a party, plenty of sources are available:

• Treaties in Force (TIF) is published annually by the Department of State to provide information on treaties and other international agreements to which the U.S. has become a party. It includes both multilateral and bilateral treaties. Available in the subscription databases LexisNexis, Westlaw and HeinOnline.
• The Law Library of Congress The United States Treaties collection includes the United States Treaty Series (1795-1945) and United States Treaties and Other International Agreements or TIAS (1950-1982).
• Treaties and Other International Acts Series (TIAS)
• Congressional Treaty Documents
• Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC)

Codings

gnevar datasets are coerced into a standard format to establish a consistent structure to facilitate comparison. A central part of this is the “LJD” coding, which stands for Lateralism, Jurisdiction, and Document type.

Overview

ally_agree	799	65
ally_membs	2397	30
eco_agree	2167	18
eco_membs	24981	6
envr_agree	6681	31
envr_membs	50072	9
fish_agree	0	31
fish_membs	8793	9
iea_agree	5039	19
iea_membs	17166	6
stat_actor	435	15
tfd_agree	572	63
tfd_membs	2118	3
trad_agree	873	24
trad_membs	4557	10
watr_agree	0	31
watr_membs	24956	9