ch.opencaselaw/swiss-caselaw · v1.3.0 · data-and-databases
OpenCaseLaw — Swiss Caselaw, Statutes & Doctrine is healthy: it completed an MCP handshake in 1308 ms and exposes 42 tools.
1M+ Swiss court decisions, statutes & doctrine with citation graph (DE/FR/IT). CC0, free, 42 tools.
Endpoint: https://mcp.opencaselaw.ch/mcp (streamable-http)
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| Users (last 30 days) | 0 |
| Handshake | Healthy |
| Auth needed | None |
| Tool count | 42 |
| Latency | 1308 ms |
| Last checked (UTC) | 2026-10-17T01:05:39.686Z |
| Checked (UTC) | Status | Latency | Error |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-17T01:05:39.686Z | Healthy | 1308 | |
| 2026-10-15T18:15:13.976Z | Healthy | 704 | |
| 2026-10-14T17:20:49.900Z | Healthy | 2718 |
search | Minimal search tool following the deep-research search/fetch convention. Returns a ranked list of Swiss court decisions matching a query, each as {id, title, url, snippet}. Pair with `fetch` to retrieve a decision's full text by id. General (non-deep-research) clients should prefer `search_decisions |
fetch | Minimal fetch tool following the deep-research search/fetch convention. Fetches one Swiss decision's full text by id, returning {id, title, text, url, metadata}. The id comes from a `search` result (a decision_id like bger_6B_1234_2025; a docket number or BGE reference also resolves). General client |
search_decisions | Use this tool to find COURT DECISIONS (Rechtsprechung): 1,050,000+ Swiss federal and cantonal decisions plus ~2,800 ECtHR decisions concerning Switzerland. Full-text search with keywords, phrases (in quotes), Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), prefix matching (word*), docket lookup (6B_1234/2025) and |
get_decision | Fetch a single court decision with full text. Look up by decision_id (e.g., bger_6B_1234_2025), docket number (e.g., 6B_1234/2025), or partial match. Full text is truncated at 200,000 characters for very long decisions. Set full_text=false to get only metadata and regeste. |
get_decisions | Use this tool to fetch SEVERAL decisions at once (1-10 ids) instead of calling get_decision repeatedly. Same data per decision — canonical citation strings, Markdown link, Regeste, metadata — in ONE call. Prefer this whenever you are about to read more than one decision from a search result: it is t |
list_courts | List all available courts with decision counts, date ranges, and language coverage. Use this to discover what data is available. |
get_statistics | Get aggregate statistics about the dataset. Optionally filter by court, canton, or year. |
find_citations | Given a decision_id, show what it cites and what cites it. Uses the reference graph database with 9.65M citation edges. Returns resolved citations with confidence scores and unresolved references. |
find_appeal_chain | Trace the appeal chain (Instanzenzug) for a decision. Shows prior instances (lower courts) and subsequent instances (appeals to higher courts). Reconstructs the full procedural path, e.g. Bezirksgericht → Obergericht → Bundesgericht. Uses the is_prior_instance flag from decision headers. |
find_leading_cases | Find the most-cited decisions for a topic or statute. Authority ranking based on citation graph; a free-text topic ranks decisions whose regeste carries the query terms first (`regeste_match`: share of terms found, null without a regeste). Filter by statute (law_code + article), topic query, court, |
analyze_legal_trend | Year-by-year decision counts showing jurisprudence evolution. Use with a statute reference (law_code + article), a text query, or both. Returns yearly counts with visual bar chart. |
draft_mock_decision | Build a research-only mock decision outline from user facts. Combines relevant Swiss case law retrieval with statute references. If possible, enriches statutes with Fedlex text excerpts. IMPORTANT: The tool may return clarification questions (high/medium priority). High-priority clarifications must |
get_case_brief | Structured case brief: regeste, Sachverhalt, key Erwägungen (first 12 only — for orientation, NOT a pinpoint ranking), Dispositiv, statutes, citation authority, related cases. Accepts BGE ref, decision_id, or docket. To pinpoint which Erwägung supports a specific claim, use find_relevant_erwaegung — |
get_decision_structure | Structured decision fields: Sachverhalt (facts), Erwägungen as numbered paragraphs ('1', '1.1', '2.3'), Dispositiv (ruling), Regeste (BGE only). Federal decisions only; for cantonal use get_decision. Returns excerpts; for verbatim full text of one Erwägung, use get_erwaegung. PINPOINT POLICY: never |
get_erwaegung | Verbatim text of ONE numbered Erwägung — the citable unit in Swiss practice (e.g. 'BGE 136 III 513 E. 2.3'). Use when the user already gave an e_number. If only a claim was given (no e_number): use find_relevant_erwaegung — never guess. Returns text + sibling Erwägung numbers; a parent (E. 2.2) incl |
find_relevant_erwaegung | Find which Erwägung paragraph(s) match a legal claim. Server-side FTS5+BM25 over per-paragraph text; returns top-k with confidence labels (high/medium/low) and a highlighted_snippet wrapping the matched sentence in <mark>…</mark> (quote it verbatim). When no_match=true or confidence=low, do NOT cite |
get_article_purpose | Return verbatim text from the Federal Council Botschaft (or Erläuterungsbericht) explaining the legislative purpose of a specific article. Joins the verbatim Botschaft corpus (post-2003 BBl publications, Akoma Ntoso XML where available, PDF fallback otherwise) with the article-Botschaft link table. |
search_botschaft | Use this tool to retrieve and quote the VERBATIM text of Federal Council Botschaften (legislative messages). Where get_article_purpose answers 'why does Art. X exist?', this tool answers 'show me every Botschaft passage about TOPIC X'. Useful when the caller doesn't know which SR/article to ask for |
get_article_history | Chronological story of a single statute article: current text + every linked Botschaft (enacted + amendments) + leading court interpretations + doctrinal commentary, all ordered by date. Combines statutes.db, materialien.db, reference_graph.db, and ok_commentaries.db into one timeline. USE THIS when |
get_regeste | Get the official Regeste (head-note) of a Swiss court decision. The Regeste is the court's own formulation of the legal rule established — for BGEs especially, this is the canonical citation target. Often references specific Erwägungen via '(E. 5.2.1)' which can then be retrieved verbatim with get_e |
check_claim_support | Verify whether a Swiss court decision actually supports a legal claim. Uses an independent Sonnet judge to compare the claim against verbatim text from the decision (Erwägung if pinpoint given, else Regeste, else first portion of full text). Returns {supports: yes|partial|no|contradicts|unrelated, c |
attest_response | MANDATORY FINAL-STEP AUDIT of your draft answer. Checks five hallucination classes: (1) every case citation (BGE/BGer/BVGer/BStGer/BPatGer/MKGE, FR/IT forms) exists and any pinpoint (E. X.Y) resolves to a real Erwägung; (2) every 'Art. X LAW' statute reference resolves; (3) quoted passages (60-400 c |
cite | Get the canonical Swiss citation string for a decision reference. CALL THIS BEFORE writing any case citation in your response. Returns ready-to-embed citation_string (DE/FR/IT variants plus a canonical URL) and a verbatim rule_statement. If the reference doesn't exist, returns exists=false plus clos |
get_doctrine | Get statute text + leading cases + doctrinal timeline + Federal Council Botschaft (legislative intent) + scholarly commentary for a Swiss law article or legal concept. ALWAYS USE THIS for questions about the purpose, intent, or ratio legis of a provision — it returns the Botschaft (Materialien) alon |
generate_exam_question | Generate a Swiss law exam practice question (Fallbearbeitung) based on a real BGE. Returns a fact pattern (Sachverhalt) from a real court decision and a hidden analysis (applicable statutes, leading case, legal test, correct outcome). Workflow: present the fact_pattern and hint to the student, wait |
get_law | AUTHORITATIVE LOOKUP for the text of any Swiss law article — federal OR cantonal — from two local mirrors. Federal (canton='CH', default): Fedlex mirror, all federal acts (OR, ZGB, StGB, ZPO, StPO, BV, SchKG, BGG, DBG, AIG, BVG, KVG …) in DE/FR/IT; names match in any language, case, dots or spaces ( |
search_laws | Use this tool to find STATUTE ARTICLES by topic — full-text over every locally indexed article, federal (Fedlex mirror) AND cantonal (LexFind mirror, all 26 cantons), interleaved. Not for whole laws by name (search_legislation) or court decisions (search_decisions). BM25-ranked per corpus, merged by |
get_commentary | Look up a scholarly legal commentary from OnlineKommentar.ch (CC-BY-4.0) for a Swiss federal law article. Without article: lists available commentaries for that law. With article: returns the full commentary text, authors, and citation. Covers 19 Swiss laws including BV, OR, ZGB, StGB, StPO, ZPO, DS |
search_commentaries | Use this tool ONLY for article-anchored commentary — doctrinal discussion tied to a specific statute article: OnlineKommentar.ch / OpenLegalCommentary.ch (federal law) and the Kommentar zur Schaffhauser Verwaltungsrechtspflege (Schaffhausen VRG and JG; abbreviation 'VRG SH' / 'JG SH'). For the full |
search_scholarship | Use this tool for open-access SCHOLARSHIP (Lehre): OA journal articles (sui generis et al.), OA legal commentaries (OnlineKommentar, OpenLegalCommentary — this tool SUBSUMES search_commentaries), dissertations and theses from Swiss university repositories, and federal legal-policy reports. Returns r |
get_scholarship | Fetch a single OA legal publication (article, dissertation, commentary, etc.) by its pub_id. Returns full metadata + abstract + full text if available + cross-citations to statutes and decisions. |
find_scholarship_citing_statute | Find OA legal scholarship that cites a given Swiss statute article. Sourced from article-anchored commentaries (OnlineKommentar / OpenLegalCommentary) PLUS full-text citation extraction across the open-access journal corpus (~90k statute references resolved from 9k full-text records). |
find_scholarship_citing_decision | Find OA legal scholarship that cites a specific Swiss court decision. Reverse direction of the scholarship↔caselaw bridge: given a decision_id (e.g. 'bge_BGE_140_III_86' or 'bger_4A_571_2008'), return open-access publications that cite it in their full text. Citations are extracted deterministically |
list_scholarship_sources | List the open-access legal scholarship sources currently indexed, with publication counts by source, type, and language. Use this to discover what corpora are available before searching. |
get_scholarship_full_text | Fetch the full text of an OA legal publication by pub_id, on demand. Cached after first fetch so subsequent calls are instant. License-gated: only records under CC-BY-* (except CC-BY-ND), OA-Swiss-federal, or OA-author-permitted-reuse are extracted. ND/all-rights-reserved records return the upstream |
get_materialien | Look up Materialien for a Swiss federal law article. Returns up to three things: `sources` = per-article digests of legislative intent (BV and BGFA only — 167 articles); `botschaft_documents` = the Federal Council messages that concern this article, with BBl citation, title and Fedlex link (620 SR n |
search_materialien | Use this tool for DIGESTED legislative history — per-article intent summaries and key arguments, not verbatim text. COVERAGE IS NARROW: BV and BGFA digests (167 articles) plus BV debate transcripts, and nothing else. For any other law this returns 0 hits, which means 'outside this index', not 'no ma |
search_legislation | Use this tool to find WHOLE LAWS by name or subject — 33,000+ federal and cantonal enactments from LexFind.ch; the entry point for cantonal questions ('Hundegesetz Bern', 'loi sur l'énergie Vaud'). Not for article-level topic search (search_laws) or the core federal codes (get_law is instant there). |
get_legislation | Retrieve the FULL TEXT and article list of a specific Swiss law, federal or cantonal, by LexFind ID or SR/systematic number. For federal laws in the Fedlex mirror this is instant (local SQLite). For cantonal laws, the law is downloaded from LexFind as PDF, parsed with PyMuPDF, and segmented into art |
browse_legislation_changes | Browse recent legislation changes for a canton or federal level. Shows new laws, amendments, and abrogations with dates. |
search_practice | Use this tool when the question involves federal ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE (Verwaltungspraxis): Wegleitungen, Kreisschreiben, Weisungen, Rundschreiben — agency guidance, not court decisions. 9,900+ documents. Covered: BSV (AHV/IV/EL/EO/FamZ/BVG Wegleitungen, Kreisschreiben, Mitteilungen, every version |
get_practice | Retrieve a single federal administrative-practice document by its doc_id (e.g. 'estv_ks_ks_nr_28', 'sem_weisungen_weisungen-aug-d', 'bsv_weisungen_6930_v20_de', 'seco_alv_avig_ale_de'). Returns full body text, title, date, issuing authority, and PDF URL. Use search_practice first to discover the doc |