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How to use this guide

This guide contains selected free online legal research resources for jurisdictions outside the United States. Many lawyers have access to paid databases. Yet, combining paid and free resources, can help them to avoid potentially expensive searches. For researchers without access to paid databases, the following resources may be essential. For information on Free and Low Cost legal research materials in the United States see:

Free Legal Research Resources - United States
by AJ Blechner Last Updated Nov 13, 2024 17130 views this year

General Resources

Finding Foreign Law

There are many useful resources providing access to foreign legal materials at no cost. Materials instructing researchers on how to search the law in foreign jurisdictions are also available.

Guide to Researching Foreign Law
This guide explains how to find the laws of non-U.S. countries, primarily in English.
Beginning Your Foreign Legal Research
This research guide from Columbia School of Law provides a useful starting point.

Law Across Many Jurisdictions

The following resources compile information about how to find the law in many jurisdictions. These significant resources are often helpful to researchers in a range of geographical areas.

Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has created research guides for a wide range of countries including: Australia, Brazil, Britain, China, Egypt, Eritrea, France, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Russia and Sweden.
GlobaLex
This site includes sections on foreign, international and comparative law. The section devoted to foreign law includes excellent summaries of legal research in many jurisdictions. Links to resources are included where available.
WorldLII
This site collects laws, treaties, cases, journals and other materials from around the world. It covers both foreign and international law.
CommonLII
CommonLII provides free access to the legal materials of 59 Commonwealth and common law jurisdictions.
Juricaf
This database, which is entirely in French, includes Supreme Court decisions from 42 francophone countries.

African Legal Materials

Not all African nations provide online access to their legal materials. However, an increasing number provide these materials either on government websites or from non-governmental organizations. Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

AfricanLII
AfricanLII provides access to legal materials throughout the African continent.
Kenya Law Reports
This site offers legal materials from Kenya, including case law, legislation and secondary sources.
South African Legal Information Institute
SAFLII publishes legal information from South Africa, comprising mainly case law.
Africabib.org
The Africana Periodical Literature database provides information about articles covering many topics, including law. Most articles are in English or French.
Laws.Africa
This is a collection of a growing collection of African legislation in the Legislation Commons. These materials are available under a Creative Commons license.

Asian Legal Materials

Increasingly, Asian countries are posting legal materials on government run websites, sometimes even translated versions. Websites providing free online access to legal materials for the region, are also increasingly common. Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

AdvocateKhoj Law Library
Advocate Khoj is a new service that includes a library of Indian legal materials. Materials include: cases, statutes, rules, forms and contracts. It also has a legal glossary with over 2,000 terms.
HKLII
HKLII provides "free access to legal materials in Hong Kong."
Indian Parliament Website
Provides access to Indian legislation that is introduced and/or passed by the Indian Parliament. Many government documents are also included.
Indian Courts Website
Provides access to court documents from India's court system including full text of some cases. The in house databases in the Judge's Library are open access.
Kanoon
Contains Indian judgments and laws together with analysis of the documents.
LII of India
Provides free access to Indian governmental documents at both the national and local levels.
PacLII
PacLII provides access to legal information for the following Pacific Islands: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji Islands, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Nouvelle-Calédonie Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.

Australasian Legal Materials

These resources offer access to the laws of the sovereign nations in Australasia. Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

ComLaw
ComLaw provides free Australian legal materials including the constitution, bills, acts and legislative instruments. This source is maintained by the Australian government.
OpenGov NSW
This site offers free access to materials published by the government of New South Wales.
PacLII
PacLII provides access to legal information for the following Pacific Islands: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji Islands, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Nouvelle-Calédonie Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
Legal Māori Resource Hub
This site was created by a team of scholars at Victoria University of Wellington. It includes Māori legal dictionary and a collection of digitized Māori language legal materials.
NZLII
NZLII provides free access to New Zealand's legal materials.
New Zealand Legislation
A New Zealand government site providing the full text of acts, bills and regulations.

European Legal Materials

Many European countries make their legal materials available for free online, sometimes even in translation. Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

Alpingi
The official website of Iceland's Parliament. It includes some laws and the Constitution.
BaiLII
BaiLII provides free access to British and Irish legal materials. It also offers databases for searching European case law.
CyLaw
A free, searchable database of Cypriot legal materials in their original language, with some translations.
Data.senat.fr
This site provides free access to data on French legislative activities.
Eur-Lex
This site, which provides access to European Union law, includes a treaty collection.
Folketinget
This site from the government of Denmark includes full text of legislative documents. It also some basic information about Denmark's government in English.
Government Offices of Sweden
This website provides translations of some Swedish laws into English, French and German.
Legifrance
This site offers the full text of the French Constitution and many laws. It also offers translations of these materials in many languages, including English.
Legislation.gov.uk
Free access to legal materials from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. This is a government-sponsored site.
Overheid.nl
This is "the central access point to all information about government organizations of the Netherlands." The site includes laws, regulations, and treaties, as well as links to other official sites. The Overheid site is in Dutch.
Riksdagen.se
The Swedish-language website for the Swedish parliament. Includes government documents in Swedish.
Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz
Free access to German statutes.
Rechtsinformationsystem des Bundes
Free access to Austrian statutes, this website also provides English language access to many materials.
The Federal Council The Portal of Swiss Government
Contains Swiss materials including: the Official Compilation of Federal Legislation, Classified Compilation of Federal Legislation, and the Official Federal Gazette. Materials are available in multiple languages, with some in English.

North American Legal Materials

Legal materials for the countries of North America are frequently available online, in multiple languages. Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

Supreme Court of Canada
All the Supreme Court of Canada’s judgments from 1876 to present, are available freely online.
CanLII - Canadian Legal Information Institute
CanLII is a free online resource for federal and provincial case law and legislation.
Digital Library of the Caribbean
Provides access to Caribbean historical, cultural and research materials. The database includes some historical legal materials.
Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
Contains full-text opinions from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, and links to other helpful resources.
Jamaican House of Parliament
The Jamaican House of Parliament website provides its bills, acts, orders, speeches, and more.

South American Legal Materials

Remember that these copies of the laws are not always official. You should always confirm the accuracy of any information in an official source.

Argentina's Official Gazette
This website provides access to the official gazette of Argentina.
Cases from Argentina’s Supreme Court
Full text of cases from Argentina's Supreme Court (Corte Suprema de Justicia de la Nación).
Political Database of the Americas
Provides information about: institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies, and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region.
Ley Chile
Open access to Chilean Legal materials.
Official Peruvian Gazette
Peruvian Legal Information System
The Constitution, statutes, codes, and regulations can be found at this official Peruvian database.
Infoleg
This is an official Argentinian database that provides access to the Argentinian Constitution, codes, statutes, and regulations.

International Legal Materials

International Law

International law is the law governing relationships between nations. There are several sources of free legal materials related to international law, many of which are listed under the general resources above.

International Criminal Court
The website for the International Criminal Court provides access to information about the court's structure and cases heard by the court. In many instances, it also offers PDFs of court documents, including transcripts, verdicts, sentencing decisions and warrants. Many materials are offered in multiple languages.
UN Commission on International Trade Law
The UN's working group website contains conventions, model laws, contractual texts, notes and recommendations, and secondary resources on the subject area.
Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts (CLOUT)
The United Nations Commission on Trade Law hosts a database of court decisions and arbitral awards relating to the Conventions and Model Laws flowing from the work of the Commission.
Global-Regulation
Global-Regulation is a database containing over 1.55 million laws from around the world, with over 700,000 translated into English through Machine Translation. The first ten searches are free for non-subscribers.

If you are doing legal research, you will likely want to use a citator, which is a tool designed to help you to find instances where a legal document has been cited or otherwise discussed.

LawCite
LawCite is an automatically generated international legal case and journal article citator that will find instances where a legal document has been cited or otherwise discussed. It includes cases, legal documents and law journal articles with a particular focus on materials from common law countries.

International Law Treaties

The resources below provide free access to a range of international treaties.

WorldLII
This site collects laws, treaties, cases, journals and other materials from around the world. It covers both foreign and international law.
Avalon Project at Yale Law School
This project provides digital copies of historical diplomacy documents including treaties.
Europa.eu
This section of Europa.eu provides access to certain treaties and international agreements related to the European Union.
Council of Europe Treaty Series
This print publication continues the "European Treaty Series" and covers 2004-present.
Eur-Lex
This site, which provides access to European Union law, includes a treaty collection.
Canada Treaty Resources
A site providing access to Canadian treaties. The site has categories for bilateral, multilateral, and plurilateral treaties as well as a list of other related links.

Historical Legal Materials

Historical Law Library

Many sites also offer access to historical foreign laws from various periods. Included below is a small selection of available resources.

The Roman Law Library
This website provides access to laws from Rome.
English Medieval Legal Documents Wiki
This site from the University of Southern California serves as a guide to available Medieval English legal documents from AD 600 - AD 1535. It includes references to both print sources and online sources.
Early English Laws
From the website: "Early English Laws is a project to publish online and in print new editions and translations of all English legal codes, edicts, and treatises produced up to the time of Magna Carta 1215."

Data Sources

Data.go.jp
This site offers access to over 10,000 datasets from Japan, all licensed under a CC-BY license.
Data.gouv.fr
This site provides access to public datasets from France under an Open License.
Data.parliament.uk
This site offers access to data from the parliament of the United Kingdom.
EdStats
This site, maintained by the World Bank, presents data on education from around the world.
National High Courts Database
This database offers data on courts in the following countries: Australia, Canada, India, Namibia, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
UN Data
This search engine allows users to search for data from a wide range of UN data sources. According to the website, it includes "numerous databases, tables and glossaries containing over 60 million data points cover a wide range of themes including Agriculture, Crime, Education, Employment, Energy, Environment, Health, HIV/AIDS, Human Development, Industry, Information and Communication Technology, National Accounts, Population, Refugees, Tourism, Trade, as well as the Millennium Development Goals indicators."
World Bank
The World Bank offers access to a wide range of data from around the world. Data sets are both browseable and searchable.
Data Portal India
Currently in beta release, this site has been designed to host data that is part of the new Open Data initiative of India's government. The goal is for India's departments and ministries to publish their data here.
Additional sources are available on the Harvard Law School Library's website.