This study contains two datasets which provide a complete overview of all European Union (EU) Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) joint actions between 1998-2003. Two datasets have been constructed using the electronic portal to EU law, EUR-Lex, to consult online editions of the Official Journal of the European Union (L series). Every edition of the Official Journal between 1998 and 2003 was browsed by year. Subsequently, all ‘joint actions’, ‘decisions’ and ‘framework decisions’ relating to CFSP and JHA were printed, filed, sorted and analysed, and relevant information from these was extracted and entered into the datasets under the appropriate headings. This process made it possible to see all data at a glance in comparative tables, whereas, previously, it was only possible to gather data by looking up the details of each action separately in the Official Journal of the European Union. The datasets provide a useful resource and a basis for further research in this area. Further information is available from the ESRC Award web page. CFSP dataset: 71 entries representing all CFSP ‘joint actions’ agreed between 1998 and 2003. Each entry has 10 variables/cells showing the date, name of action, geographical arena, treaty article, Official Journal reference, objective, mandate, details of who was expected to do what, resources allocated, and date of entry into force/expiry of the ‘joint action’. JHA dataset: 60 entries representing all ‘joint actions’, ‘decisions’ and ‘framework decisions’ agreed between 1998 and 2003. Each entry has 9 variables/cells showing the date, name of action/decision/framework decision, treaty article, Official Journal reference, objective, mandate, who was expected to do what, resources allocated, and date of entry into force/expiry of the ‘joint action’ or ‘decision’. Where the datasets show empty cells, this reflects either the non-applicability of a variable to that particular entry, or indicates that information in relation to a variable was not available from the original source.