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.
Switzerland