# Swiss Legal Source Map

A curated map of major free/open Swiss legal resources for source triage. Always verify current URLs, source status, and reuse terms before relying on or redistributing data.

## 1. Federal legislation and official publications

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fedlex | https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/en/home | Federal Constitution, federal acts, ordinances, treaties, Federal Gazette, Official Compilation, Classified Compilation, consultation materials | Official, free | First stop for federal law |
| Fedlex Data / JOLux | https://swiss.github.io/fedlex-jolux/ | Structured model and metadata for Fedlex materials | Official-adjacent / technical | Machine-readable metadata, knowledge graphs |
| opendata.swiss | https://opendata.swiss/en | Swiss open government data catalogue | Official open-data portal | Dataset discovery and reuse checks |
| Federal Gazette | Fedlex | Dispatches, reports, explanatory materials, draft laws, parliamentary publications | Official, free | Legislative intent and reform tracking |
| Official Compilation | Fedlex | Chronological official publication of federal legislation | Official, free | Entry into force and publication history |
| Classified/Systematic Compilation | Fedlex | Consolidated federal law in force | Official, free | Baseline legal text research |

## 2. Parliamentary and legislative-history sources

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Curia Vista | https://www.parlament.ch/en/ratsbetrieb/curia-vista | Parliamentary business since 1995, including Federal Council dispatches and procedural requests | Official, free | Legislative history and status tracking |
| Official Bulletin | https://www.parlament.ch/en/ratsbetrieb/amtliches-bulletin | Parliamentary debates | Official, free | Legislative intent and debate context |
| Votes database | https://www.parlament.ch/en/ratsbetrieb/abstimmungen | Parliamentary votes | Official, free | Political and legislative tracking |
| Consultation procedures | Fedlex / admin.ch | Drafts, explanatory reports, consultation responses where published | Official, free | Reform tracking and stakeholder positions |

## 3. Federal courts and case law

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal Supreme Court | https://www.bger.ch/ | Leading decisions, all judgments, novelty lists, search strategy, anonymisation rules | Official, free | Main federal case-law source |
| BGE / ATF leading decisions | Federal Supreme Court site | Official leading decisions | Official, free | High-authority Swiss case law |
| All Federal Supreme Court judgments | Federal Supreme Court site | Broader anonymised judgments | Official, free | Practice tracking and case-law research |
| Federal Administrative Court | https://www.bvger.ch/ | Federal administrative judgments | Official, free | Public law, asylum, customs, regulatory, administrative matters |
| Federal Criminal Court | https://www.bstger.ch/ | Federal criminal court decisions | Official, free | Federal criminal/procedural matters |
| Federal Patent Court | https://www.bundespatentgericht.ch/ | Patent litigation decisions | Official, free | Swiss patent litigation |

## 4. Cantonal law and cantonal case law

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LexFind | https://www.lexfind.ch/ | Search across federal and cantonal law | Free / official-linked aggregator | First stop for cantonal legislation discovery |
| Cantonal official law portals | Canton-specific URLs | Cantonal constitutions, acts, ordinances, sometimes communal links | Official, free | Controlling source for cantonal law |
| Cantonal court portals | Canton-specific URLs | Published cantonal decisions | Official, free where available | Controlling source for cantonal case law |
| Entscheidsuche | https://entscheidsuche.ch/ | Search across many Swiss court decisions | Free discovery aggregator | Case-law discovery layer |
| OpenCaseLaw | https://opencaselaw.ch/ | Published Swiss decisions, federal statutes, cantonal legislation, citation graph, MCP, API, bulk data | Open / AI-ready | Swiss legal AI substrate and discovery layer |

## 5. Regulators and supervisory authorities

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FINMA | https://www.finma.ch/ | Financial-market regulation, circulars, guidance, authorisations, enforcement materials | Official, free | Banking, insurance, asset management, fintech, AML, crypto supervision |
| FDPIC / EDÖB | https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/en | Data protection and freedom-of-information guidance, reports, recommendations | Official, free | Swiss data protection and transparency |
| COMCO / WEKO | https://www.weko.admin.ch/ | Competition law decisions, guidance, reports | Official, free | Antitrust and competition |
| SECO | https://www.seco.admin.ch/ | Labour, sanctions, export controls, unfair competition, economic policy | Official, free | Employment/public economic regulation |
| Swissmedic | https://www.swissmedic.ch/ | Therapeutic products and medical-device regulation | Official, free | Health/life-sciences regulation |
| Federal Tax Administration / ESTV | https://www.estv.admin.ch/ | VAT, withholding tax, stamp duty, circulars, practice notices | Official, free | Tax practice |
| BAKOM / OFCOM | https://www.bakom.admin.ch/ | Telecoms and communications regulation | Official, free | Telecoms, platforms, digital infrastructure |
| fedpol / MROS | https://www.fedpol.admin.ch/ | AML reporting and federal police context | Official, free | AML and criminal-regulatory context |

## 6. Intellectual property and registers

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swissreg / IPI | https://www.swissreg.ch/ | Swiss trademarks, patents, designs, publications, status | Official, free | IP status, register evidence |
| Federal Patent Court | https://www.bundespatentgericht.ch/ | Patent case law | Official, free | Patent litigation |
| EPO | https://www.epo.org/ | European patent materials | Official, free | Cross-border patent research |
| WIPO | https://www.wipo.int/ | International IP materials | Official, free | International IP research |

## 7. Commercial register, publications, and legal-state sources

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zefix | https://www.zefix.ch/ | Central business-name index and commercial-register search | Official, free | Company identification |
| Cantonal commercial registers | Canton-specific URLs | Official company extracts and register filings | Official, partly free / extracts may be paid | Authority, signatory and entity verification |
| SHAB / SOGC | https://www.shab.ch/ | Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce notices: company events, insolvency, calls to creditors, public notices | Official, free search | Corporate events and publication proof |
| Debt enforcement / bankruptcy publications | Canton/local-specific URLs | Local/cantonal insolvency and enforcement notices | Mixed | Solvency and enforcement context |
| Land register | Canton-specific access | Real property rights | Official but access-restricted | Real estate and security interests |

## 8. Open legal-data and AI-ready layers

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenCaseLaw | https://opencaselaw.ch/ | Swiss decisions/statutes, citation graph, MCP, REST API, bulk data | Open / AI-ready | Swiss legal AI workflows |
| opendata.swiss | https://opendata.swiss/en | Public-sector open datasets | Official open-data catalogue | Dataset discovery and reuse checks |
| Fedlex-JOLux | https://swiss.github.io/fedlex-jolux/ | Structured Fedlex legal metadata model | Official-adjacent / technical | Legal metadata and knowledge graphs |
| Entscheidsuche | https://entscheidsuche.ch/ | Case-law search | Free discovery layer | Court-decision discovery |
| SLDS dataset | https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.13456 | Swiss Leading Decision Summarization dataset | Academic open dataset | Legal NLP and summarisation research |

## 9. Free research guides and educational sources

| Resource | URL | What it gives | Status | Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GlobaLex Switzerland guide | https://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Switzerland.html | Research guide to Swiss legal system and sources | Free | Orientation for non-Swiss researchers |
| Library of Congress Guide to Law Online: Switzerland | https://guides.loc.gov/law-switzerland | Annotated links to Swiss legal materials | Free | Source discovery |
| UZH Center for Legal Data Science | https://www.clds.uzh.ch/en/knowledge/databases.html | Legal data resources | Free | Legal data discovery |
| sui generis | https://sui-generis.ch/ | Open-access Swiss legal journal | Free / open access | Doctrine and academic commentary |
| Introduction to Swiss Law | https://www.ius.uzh.ch/ | Open academic materials where available | Free / academic | Swiss legal-system orientation |

## 10. Private or semi-open tools to classify carefully

| Resource | Status | Caution |
|---|---|---|
| Lawbrary | Private platform / login-based elements | Useful ecosystem, not automatically official or open-data |
| Lawsearch / Weblaw | Commercial legal research / AI | Powerful, not open public infrastructure |
| Swisslex | Commercial / institutional access | Major Swiss legal database, not free/open for general reuse |
| Legalis | Commercial / institutional access | Commentary/journals/case law, not open |
| Private legal AI tools | Private / commercial | Useful, but not source-of-truth public authority |

## Reuse caution

For AI systems, separate:

- Free to access
- Open data
- Machine-readable
- Official authority
- Commercial database
- Secondary commentary

These categories overlap but are not identical.
