Wikidata:Property proposal/GLEI ELF

ELF code

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Organization

   Done: ELF code (P10421) (Talk and documentation)

Description	code for entity legal form (ELF), assigned by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) per ISO 20275
Represents	ISO 20275 (Q106152815)
Data type	External identifier
Domain	legal form (Q12047392)
Allowed values	[A-Z\d]{4}
Example 1	Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Q460178) → 2HBR
Example 2	société anonyme (Q18195767) → QVPB
Example 3	akciová společnost (Q3742494) → 6CQN
Example 4	kabushiki gaisha (Q1480166) → T417
Source	https://www.gleif.org/en/about-lei/code-lists/iso-20275-entity-legal-forms-code-list
Planned use	import to Mix-n-Match and start coreferencing
Number of IDs in source	3296 (across 165 jurisdictions) as of 2020-11-19, reference: https://www.gleif.org/content/2-about-lei/7-code-lists/2-iso-20275-entity-legal-forms-code-list/2020-11-19_elf-code-list-v1.3.xlsx
Expected completeness	eventually complete (Q21873974)
Formatter URL	https://search.gleif.org/#/search/criteria[0][relId]=FILTER_LEIREC&criteria[0][fieldId]=LEIREC_LEGAL_FORM&criteria[0][value][code]=$1&criteria[0][operator]=MATCH&criteria[0][dataType]=RESOURCE&expertMode=true#results-section
See also	Legal Entity Identifier (P1278), GLEIF registration authority code (P9487)
Applicable "stated in"-value	ISO 20275 (Q106152815)
Type constraint – instance of	legal form (Q12047392)
Single-value constraint	yes
Distinct-values constraint	yes
Wikidata project	Wikidata:WikiProject_Companies

Motivation

MD Imtiaz Ahammad Kopiersperre Jklamo ArthurPSmith S.K. Givegivetake fnielsen rjlabs ChristianKl Vladimir Alexiev Parikan User:Cardinha00 MB-one User:Simonmarch User:Jneubert Mathieudu68 User:Kippelboy User:Datawiki30 User:PKM User:RollTide882071 Andber08 Sidpark SilentSpike Susanna Ånäs (Susannaanas) User:Johanricher User:Celead User:Finnusertop cdo256 Mathieu Kappler RShigapov User:So9q User:1-Byte pmt Rtnf econterms Dollarsign8 User:Izolight maiki c960657 User:Automotom applsdev Bubalina Fordaemdur DaxServer

Notified participants of WikiProject Companies

Now that we have GLEIF registration authority code (P9487), we should add another GLEI lookup list: ELF (ISO 20275) --Vladimir Alexiev (talk) 09:53, 18 May 2021 (UTC)

• source: https://www.gleif.org/en/about-lei/code-lists/iso-20275-entity-legal-forms-code-list
• download: https://www.gleif.org/content/2-about-lei/7-code-lists/2-iso-20275-entity-legal-forms-code-list/2020-11-19_elf-code-list-v1.3.xlsx
• The same WD legal form may have several ELF, since ELF is strictly separated by jurisdiction.
  • Eg Public Limited Company (English) and Cwmni Cyfyngedig Cyhoeddus (Welsh) have the same code B6ES, but the same in Ireland has code VYAX.
  • So it must always be used with qualifier applies to jurisdiction (P1001)
  • When the same WD item has two ELF in the same jurisdiction, this should trigger healthy debate to perhaps split it
• Column "Abbreviations Local language" can be used to add multiple semicolon-separated aliases to legal forms.

 – The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vladimir Alexiev (talk • contribs) at 09:53, May 18, 2021‎ (UTC).

Discussion

• A property needs a description and not only aliases to be created. ChristianKl ❪✉❫ 11:22, 18 May 2021 (UTC)
•  Comment As an external identifier wouldn't it be better to create an item for each jurisdiction - for example "public limited company in the UK", as a subclass, and then apply this id? ArthurPSmith (talk) 13:24, 18 May 2021 (UTC)
•  Support --1-Byte (talk) 12:17, 8 July 2021 (UTC)
•  Support --Newt713 (talk) 17:20, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
•  Comment Vladimir Alexiev, it'd be nice to have this property, but please lets avoid using it for ambigous items such as public limited company (Q5225895). There is no such thing as the same legal form being separated by jurisdiction(s) really. GLEIF assigns different ELF codes precisely because legal forms are different, as defined in each jurisdiction. This property can be used to make distinction more clear between different legal forms that warrant different items. Many Wikidata items for concerete legal forms already exist, e.g. Sp. z o.o. (Q2624661), Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (Q460178) and společnost s ručením omezeným (Q15646299), that shouldn't be blend into generic private limited company (Q18624259). In case of public limited company (Q5225895) sitelinks are for Wikipedia articles that aren't about any particular legal form, and so, to clear things up, separate items for UK legal form, Irish legal form etc. should probably be created, too. 2001:7D0:81DA:F780:39B8:73A4:4B76:4331 19:22, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
  • I completely agree (cc @ArthurPSmith:). I hope ELF will force us to reorganize and concretize company types on WD according to actual legal principles and jurisdictions. Eg maybe we should have a generic "PLC" with subclasses "UK PLC", "AU PLC" etc that are legally meaningful --Vladimir Alexiev (talk) 07:20, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
    • Would be great to create a WikiProject for that. At the moment the legal structure of some countries like Germany or Czech Republic is elaborated, while other countries have no own legal forms.--Newt713 (talk) 14:30, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
•  Support —MasterRus21thCentury (talk) 12:09, 7 February 2022 (UTC)

• @Vladimir Alexiev, ChristianKl, 1-Byte, Newt713, MasterRus21thCentury:  Done Not sure the formatter URL will work though (it's broken on the documentation page). ArthurPSmith (talk) 19:21, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

• @ArthurPSmith: More importantly, the formatter does nor work in the examples on the main prop page. But it works in example 1 above: if you examine it, you'll see the url is heavily escaped. Could you try the same escaping in the prop definition? --Vladimir Alexiev (talk) 21:40, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
• @Vladimir Alexiev: I replaced all the '[' and ']' characters, maybe that will do the trick. It fixed the links on the documentation page at least! ArthurPSmith (talk) 21:59, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

  Thank you! I completed Germany. Still a big mess, but getting better. --Newt713 (talk) 07:15, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

• @Vladimir Alexiev: may I suggest a more accurate label, "ELF code" or "GLEI ELF code", as the property isn't for a entity legal form (ELF) per se, but for its code. 2001:7D0:81DA:F780:252B:C79F:3961:41C0 07:48, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

• May I suggest some guidelines for Legal Forms with GLEI ELF Code?
  • Every legal form (P1454) should have a applies to jurisdiction (P1001)
  • If possible, a subclass of (P279) should be set to the general types (often used for Wikipedia) like foundation (Q157031)
  • The legal form (P1454) should not be translated, but the description should include the country and the general type
  • ...

  --Newt713 (talk) 08:19, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

P1001 and P279 requirement would probably make sense. But I wouldn't put too much emphasis on linking/mentioning parent classes that supposedly tie equivalent legal forms as the subject and scope of such general types is sort of blurry and subjective.

As for no translations, you mean legal form name in local language should be used as English label? I'd leave this open, or maybe to be decided on the basis of jurisdiction. If common name in English doesn't exist then local name would probably make sense. On the other hand authoritative sources beside GLEIF, such as national commerce registers or official translations of legislation often have established English translations of legal form names. 2001:7D0:81DA:F780:252B:C79F:3961:41C0 09:23, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

The use of local names in translated labels would make it easier to identify the Item. Otherwise, we have 20x foundations, associations, limited liability company ... That invites users to select the wrong item. But it's easy to add the translations in the "Also known as"-Area and as literal translation (P2441).

PS: Please use a Wikidata-User to comment, would make communication easier :) Newt713 (talk) 17:05, 4 March 2022 (UTC)

On a practical level, yes, different labels make it harder to select wrong item. Then again, labels per Help:Label can be ambiguous and some ambiguous labels are probably inevitable anyway. In GLEIF ELF list some local names also recur quite a lot, e.g. 55 × "Limited Liability Company", 10 × "Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada". It's probably good idea to use lists/queries to find the correct legal form then. 2001:7D0:81DA:F780:18B:14EA:782:4FEC 17:53, 4 March 2022 (UTC)