Computerized Data on General Assembly Resolutions

Extract

A computer-coded analysis of United Nations General Assembly resolutions is presently in progress at the University of Toledo College of Law for the purpose of studying systematically the law-making qualities of the resolutions. In the course of this project I also hope to develop some effective research tools for those who desire quick access to resolutions relating to particular substantive questions. The following information is being coded for each resolution : committee source ; operative words; references to geographic entities and co-ordinate and subsidiary organizational units ; and all citations of the U.N. Charter, the Statute and decisions of the I.C.J., General Assembly Eules of Procedure, and previous resolutions of the General Assembly and the various Councils. In addition, each resolution will be classified under one or more subject-matter headings and one or more of about twenty functional categories, such as “creation of committees,” “conciliation of a dispute,” and “interpretation of the U.N. Charter.” On the basis of this data, I intend to study such questions as the significance of re-citation of resolutions which purport to declare rules of law, and the frequency and quality of interpretations and elaborations of the U.N. Charter in the resolutions.