Databases Law & Political Science

Confoederatio Helvetica
The central portal of the Swiss agencies; extensive services, full texts can be found under Documentation.

Federal Assembly
The internet service of the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) includes a searchable version of the Amtliches Bulletin (debates of National and States Councils, Official Gazette) since 1999 and other parliamentary materials. The Amtliche Bulletin from 1891 till 1999 can be searched online at the Swiss Federal Archives.

Federal Gazette
The Federal Gazette (Bundesblatt) is an important official publication of the Swiss Federal Government, including drafts of decrees, Reports of the Federal Council and written reports of the parliamentary commissions. Documents are available from 1849 onward, only in German, French and Italian.

Official Compilation of Federal Legislation
The Official Compilation of Federal Legislation (Amtliche Sammlung des Bundesrechts) is a sequential collection of federal decrees, available in PDF format from issue 34 (1 October 1998). It is supplemented by a list of the dates the published decrees came into effect. The Official Compilation of Federal Legislation from 1891 to 1995 can be searched online at the Swiss Federal Archives. It is only available in German, French and Italian. 

Revised Compilation of Federal Acts and Ordinances
The Revised Compilation of Federal Acts and Ordinances (Bereinigte Sammlung) for the Years 1848-1947 can be searched online at the Swiss Federal Archives. It is only available in German, French and Italian.

Classified Compilation of Federal Legislation
The Classified Collection (Systematische Sammlung des Bundesrechts) contains all legislative texts currently in force. You can search by classification or within the full text. Excerpts are available in English, the full collection is only available in German, French and Italian.

Swiss Federal Supreme Court Rulings 1954 to today
Members of the University of St. Gallen can follow the link Expertensuche für Abonnenten and so take advantage of advanced search options for case law of the Federal Court: the search can be performed over landmark rulings since 1954 or over all decisions since 2000 (landmark rulings and unpublished decisions). In addition, you receive access to the electronic index volumes and can define push filters that automatically provide you with current decisions in electronic form for the topics you define. The Supreme Court also provides a tip sheet with search strategies.
With Jurivoc the Swiss Federal Supreme Court also offers a trilingual thesaurus.

For the Expertensuche für Abonnenten the University members will have to register with their SWITCH edu-ID.

Swiss Federal Supreme Court Rulings 1875 to 1953
As a part of its digitizing project, the Institute of public law at the University of Bern provides Federal Supreme Court Rulings from 1875 (Volume 1) to 1953 (Volume 79). Access is provided via the page reference; a full text search is not available.

Federal Criminal Court
Here you can find rulings of the Federal Criminal Court starting from the beginning of its activities in 2004.

Federal Administrative Court
Rulings database of the Federal Administrative Court since its founding in 2007.

Federal Patent Court
Case law of the Federal Patent Court, from 2012 on.

Federal Administrative Practices VPB
Access to rulings for the period 1987 to 2017 .

Rulings and Communications of the Asylum Appeals Commission EMARK
Here you can find fundamental decisions, a selection of additional important decisions and relevant communications of EMARK for the period 1993 to 2006.

Federal Office of Justice FOJ
A broad information service of the FOJ regarding current issues. Here you can find information on ongoing and completed consultation procedures since 1992.

LexFind.ch

LexFind.ch provides full text access to the entire federal and cantonal legislation. The data is updated daily and is therefore as up-to-date as the official websites. The search results contain an overview of all available versions. A version comparison is also possible. The website is available in German, French and Italian.

Codexplo

Codexplo enables the search for articles in the comprehensive commentaries of the Swiss civil code/law of obligations (Basler Kommentar, Berner Kommentar, Commentaire romand, Zürcher Kommentar) and thus permits a rapid identification of the different volumes, which comment on a specific article, and where they’re located.

EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex offers access to the legislation of the European Union free of charge. Users can consult the Official Journal of the EU, treaties, legislative acts, case law and legislative acts in preparation.
Search help EUR-Lex

European Union
Central online gateway of the EU.

Council of the European Union
Information of the Council of Ministers, in particular on the topics of common foreign and security policy and collaboration in the areas of justice and domestic affairs.>

European Commission
Official documents of the Commission (Green Papers, White Papers, etc.), annual General Report and Bulletin of the European Union.

European Parliament
Access to the proceedings and a number of additional documents of the parliament.

European Economic and Social Committee
Information provided by the Economic and Social Committee and access to official documents, statements, etc.

Committee of the Regions
The colourful site of the Committee of the Regions; general information and official documents.

European Central Bank
On the pages of the ECB you will find periodical publications, bulletins and the annual report, as well as working papers and documents on currency law and monetary policy.

Court of Justice of the European Union
Case law database, with rulings since June 1997; rulings before June 1997 can be found in EUR-Lex.

Press Release Database / European Commission
The database of the press service of the European Commission contains the daily press releases as of 1985. Press releases from other European institutions from the last 30 days can be found in the EU Newsroom. Older material can be found at these institutions' own press pages.

Summaries of EU legislation
Documentation of the most important aspects of EU legislation, concise and easily understandable, true to the original text. Here you can find 3,000 summaries of EU legislation, subdivided into 32 topics, corresponding to the areas of activity of the EU.

Council of Europe
Official website of the Council of Europe, including all convention texts.

European Court of Human Rights ECHR
Free access to the case law of the ECHR.

EFTA Court
Access to the rulings of the EFTA Court; general information on EFTA can be found at the EFTA Secretariat.

European Documentation Centre Mannheim
Information services of the EDC Mannheim; an extensive collection of links and a virtual library.

Federal Law
The Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection offers free access to the current federal law.

Bundesregierung
Central portal to the German Executive.

Bundestag
Website of the German parliament, with access to the documentation and information system for parliamentary proceedings DIP of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.

Bundesgesetzblatt
Access to the Federal Law Gazette in full text.

Decisions of German Federal Courts
Database containing decisions of German Federal Courts, starting with 2010. Furthermore, you get access to decisions on State level.

Bundesverfassungsgericht
Website of the Federal Constitutional Court, containing rulings since 1998 in full text.

Bundesgerichtshof
The highest court of the Federal Republic of Germany in the area of ordinary courts, that is civil and criminal justice with a rulings database since 1 January 2000.

Virtual Library for International and Interdisciplinary Legal Research
The Virtual Library for International and Interdisciplinary Legal Research is an extensive online platform for international and interdisciplinary legal research.

Bundeskanzleramt
The portal for the www services of the Austrian Chancellery.

Parlament
Access to parliamentary materials of the National Council (Nationalrat) and the Federal Council (Bundesrat): stenographic records, reports, applications, inquiries, etc.

Rechtsinformationssystem RIS
Access to decrees of federal and state law (current, in part also older versions), Federal Law Gazette, and rulings of the Constitutional Court from 1980 on (Verfassungsgerichtshof VfGH) and Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof VwGH). Rulings of the Constitutional Court from 1919 to 1979 are available as well.

Landtag
The website of the Liechtenstein Parliament. It includes the Parliament records since 1997 and speeches from the throne.

Collection of Liechtenstein Laws (Lilex)
Collection of laws of the Liechtenstein State Administration.

Présidence de la République
Information service relating to the Presidency.

Portail du Gouvernement
The information service of the French government, with direct access to web services of the Prime Minister and the individual ministries.

Assemblée nationale
Informative www service of the National Assembly with access to parliamentary materials (proceedings of the plenary sessions and the committees, legal texts that affect the National Assembly, etc.).

Sénat
The Internet service of the Senate, with access to parliamentary materials.

Journal officiel
Official online edition of the Journal Officiel since June 2004.

Conseil Constitutionnel
Rulings of the Constitutional Court in full text since 1985, index since 1958.

Conseil d'Etat
The highest administrative court in France; contains a database of rulings with full texts.

LegiFrance
Official legal portal, publication of legal texts and judicial rulings in full text, the non-authorised version of the Journal Officiel has been included in the full text since 1990.

Service Public
French E-government portal: with searchable directory of all public www servers, online advice on everyday legal issues when dealing with authorities and agencies, and administrative forms in PDF format.

Droit.org
Directory service for French law, a service of the Institut Francais d’Information juridique.

Cabinet Office
The staff office of the government, information service on its own activities and links to the Prime Minister and an overview of the individual Ministries.

UK Parliament
An extensive information service with access to the official transcripts starting in 1988 and additional parliamentary materials.

UK Statute Law Database
A collection of the laws of the United Kingdom currently in force.

legislation.gov.uk 
The database provides all documents about the respective legislation. The Archive contains all legislations from 1988 to the present day. Earlier documents are not completely contained. Besides the normal search tool, there are also services to search for changed documents.

British and Irish Legal Information Institute
An extensive collection of links about law in Great Britain and Ireland.

GOV.UK
An extensive portal on government information services, from the municipal to the national level.

Presidenza Chigi
The gateway to the information services of the Italian head of government and the individual ministries.

Parlamento Italiano
Access to the parliamentary chambers; with access to parliamentary materials.

Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana
The Gazzetta Ufficiale since 1989 in full text.

Giustizia Italia
Gateway to the Italian justice system.

Istituto di Teoria e Tecniche dell'Informazione Giuridica (ITTG)
Provider of a number of databases on various aspects of the Italian legal system, collection of links for additional institutions and materials.

ICRC Humanitarian Law
The information services of the International Red Cross in Geneva on the topic of international humanitarian law; contains treaties, commentaries and supplementary documents.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
General information on the WIPO, full-text access to important legal texts and documents.

World Trade Organization (WTO)
Document services on the topic of world trade; contains general information, documents and rulings.

Global Sales Law
A service provided by the Basel Faculty of Law, covering different aspects of international sales law; it contains texts of conventions, comments to draft convention texts, a database of rulings and bibliography. /p>

OECD
General information on the OECD, full access to various documents. Members of the University of St.Gallen have access to the more extensive database OECD iLibrary.

Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL)
An annotated collection of links of the American Society of International Law.

United Nations UN
The central portal of the information services of the UN.

UN Documentation Research Guide
A good introduction to the documentation of the UN: advice for efficient searching in the extensive information services of the UN; overview of the various types of documents and forms of publications, a service of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library.

International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Access to materials and rulings of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. 

United Nations Treaty Collection
The full text of all international treaties that have been stored at the United Nations, and those that were previously stored at the League of Nations.

UNCITRAL
The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law; the services include treaty texts, case law, bibliographies and additional documents.

White House
The official site of the President, broad information services, overview of the Cabinet with links to the individual departments.

Congress.gov
The congressional information service; extensive information on legislative activity in the House and Senate.

Constitution
Comments on the constitution with respect to decisions of the US Supreme Court.

US Government Manual
A description of public institutions in the US, with a short historical summary, description of programmes and activities, updated annually.

US Code
Access to the current applicable US Code as full text.

US Supreme Court
The official website of the US Supreme Court; contains current decisions in full text and the schedule for future proceedings. Current and important historical decisions (landmark cases) can be found at the Legal Information Institute. Justia's US Supreme Court Center allows a full-text search for all decisions since 1791.

Legal Information Institute
An extensive service of the Cornell Law School; the site provides Internet sources for legislation, government and case law.

Justia
An extensive directory service for legislation and case law, including the US Supreme Court Center and Blawgsearch, a service that directly searches a large number of legal blogs.

The Swiss Institute of Comparative Law (SICL) is a centre for information on international and foreign law and a research centre with a vast library of foreign and international law.

French name: Institut suisse de droit comparé (ISDC)