Listed below are electronic resources that provide access to foreign case law from a single jurisdiction. Many are free databases maintained by legal information institutes and other non-profit entities dedicated to providing open access to legal information in their respective jurisdictions. Others are maintained by foreign governments.
Also included are subscription legal research platforms provided by the Georgetown Law Library that focus on jurisdictions outside the U.S. and jurisdiction-specific foreign case law databases available to academic users of Lexis and Westlaw. Note that not all of the foreign case law databases offered by Lexis and Westlaw are included in the Law Library's academic subscriptions.
| Australia | Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) AustLII provides free online access to Australian case law from commonwealth (Cth), state, and territorial courts. To search or browse for decisions issued by a particular court, begin by selecting the desired jurisdiction from the menu. After the page refreshes, select the desired court from the list on the left side of the screen. To search more broadly across all available case law databases, use the Advanced Search and check the appropriate box below the date filters. Consult the User Guide for additional information. All Australian Cases Lexis's coverage of Australian case law includes separate databases of reported judgments issued by commonwealth (federal), state, and territorial courts, as well as many unreported decisions. Lexis also provides access to decisions published in more than half a dozen subject-specific case law reporters. Dates of coverage vary. By default, searches are run across all available case law databases. To limit searches to a particular database, click on the name of the desired database and wait for the page to refresh. Australia Cases Westlaw's coverage of Australian case law includes reported and unreported judgments issued by commonwealth (federal), state, and territorial courts, as well as subject-specific compilations of case law. Dates of coverage vary by database. By default, searches are run across all available case law databases. To limit searches to a particular database, click on the name of the database and wait for the page to refresh. |
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| Canada | Canadian Legal Information Instutite (CanLII) CanLII provides free online access to federal, provincial, and territorial case law, as well as decisions issued by many federal and provincial boards and tribunals. Use the search boxes at the top of the homepage to search for case law across all Canadian jurisdictions. Alternatively, you may select a jurisdiction from the menu below the search boxes to browse or search for case law from a specific jurisdiction. All Canada Cases Lexis maintains separate databases of judgments issued by federal, provincial, and territorial courts. It also provides access to to decisions published in subject-specific case law reporters. Dates of coverage vary by database. By default, searches are run across all available case law databases. To limit searches to a particular database, click on the name of the desired database and wait for the page to refresh. Canada Cases & Decisions Westlaw's coverage of Canadian case law includes separate databases of judmgments issued by different types of federal courts and by courts in each Canadian province and territory. More than two dozen topical compilations of case law also are available. Dates of coverage vary by database. |
| China (People's Republic of) | LawInfoChina This subscription database provides full-text English translations or English language summaries more than 2,000 judicial decisions issued by national, provincial, and municipal courts. Translations are displayed side-by-side next to the original Chinese text. Begin by selecting "Judicial Cases" from the menu below the search box. After the page refreshes, use the filters on the left side of the screen to browse. Or search by keyword. |
| France | Légifrance Decisions issued by the Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel), the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation, the final court of appeal in civil and criminal matters), and the Council of State (Conseil d'Etat, the final court of appeal in administrative law matters) are available on this free platform, which is maintained by the French government. The content and navigation are entirely in French. Foreign Law Translations The Institute for Transnational Law at the University of Texas maintains this free resource, which includes English translations of selected decisions issued by high-level French courts in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, contract law, and tort law. |
| Germany | German Law Archive This free resource, hosted by Oxford University, provides English translations of selected judgments issued by the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof), and the Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht). A few judgments issued by higher regional courts also are included. Foreign Law Translations The Institute for Transnational Law at the University of Texas maintains this free resource, which includes English translations of selected decisions issued by high-level German courts in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, contract law, tort law, and restitution law. |
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII) HKLII provides free online access to appellate case law, as well as decisions issued by the Court of First Instance and several specialized tribunals. To browse, begin by selecting Databases from the main menu bar at the top of the page. Then, after the page refreshes, use the menu under the heading Judgments to select either English Cases or Chinese Cases for the desired court. Use the Advanced Search template to retrieve a known case by citation and for greater precision when searching by keyword. All Hong Kong Cases Lexis provides online access to Hong Kong Cases, a bilingual reporter that selectively publishes the most significant decisions issued by the courts of Hong Kong (1946-present); Hong Kong Cases Unreported, which publishes unreported judgments issued by the Court of Final Appeal, the Court of Appeal, the Court of First Instance (High Court), the District Court, the Lands Tribunal, and other specialist tribunals (1905-present); and CaseBase Hong Kong, a digest/citator that publishes summaries of decisions issued by the courts of Hong Kong, as well as summaries of foreign court decisions that have been cited by Hong Kong courts. Hong Kong Cases Westlaw's coverage includes the full texts (1905-present) and summaries (1985-present) of judgments published in The Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest; the full texts of judgments issued by the Court of Final Appeal for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (1997-present); and summaries of selected unreported cases (1999-present). Some topical compilations of case law also are available. |
| India |
Indian Kanoon SCC Online |
| Ireland | British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) BAILII provides free online access to judgments of the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the High Court. The search template supports both keyword and Boolean searching. To limit searches to Irish courts, scroll down and check the appropriate boxes. It is also possible to retrieve cases by citation and by party name and to browse Irish cases by court. All Ireland Cases Lexis provides online access to decisions of the Supreme Court of Ireland, the Court of Appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal, and the High Court published in The Irish Reports, Ireland's official case law reporter. Lexis also provides access to Irish Approved Judgments, a separate databases of unreported cases; a digest (summary) of unreported cases (no longer updated); and a specialized reporter for Irish tax cases (no longer updated). |
| Israel | Israel Law Reports This HeinOnline database provides online access to English translations of selected judgments of the Supreme Court of Israel, as published in the Israel Law Reports (title varies). The coverage is from 1948 to 2016, at which point the print reporter ceased publication. For English translations of more recent cases, consult the VERSA database, which is described below. VERSA This free resource, hosted by the Cardozo School of Law, provides online access to more than 300 full-text English translations of judgments issued by the Supreme Court of Israel. Coverage is selective, not comprehensive, and covers the period from 1948-present. Ceasefire (Centre for Civilian Rights) This free NGO-sponsored database allows users to locate claims filed against the State of Israel or against the Palestinian Authority for harm to civilians that have been adjudicated in Israeli courts. Use the menu at the top to browse by plaintiff nationality, type of loss, and other factors. Or search by keyword. For each claim, a narrative case summary is provided, as well as the case number, party names, relevant dates, and other data. The full texts of court decisions are not included. In addition to the English interface, the database also is available in Hebrew and in Arabic. |
| Japan | Supreme Court of Japan Selected judgments issued by the Supreme Court are available in English translation from this searchable database, which is maintained by the court. Decisions may be searched by keyword, by case number, and by date of judgment. Translations are unofficial. |
| Kenya | Kenya Law Online This free resource, which includes both case law and statutory law, is provided by the National Council for Law Reporting. To search for case law by keyword, use the default Google Custom Search. To retrieve a known case by party name, case number, date or other criteria, use the Advanced Search. Consult the Help page for additional guidance. |
| Malaysia | All Malaysia Cases Lexis provides online access to the Malayan Law Journal Reports, which publishes all reported judgments issued by the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Malaysian High Court, along with headnotes and other editorial enhancements (1932-present). Lexis also provides access to the Malayan Law Journal Unreporteds, a supplemental database of unreported judgments issued by the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Malaysian High Court; as well as subject-specific reporters covering contract law, the law of evidence, and industrial relations cases. |
| Mexico | Jurisprudencia de la Corte Suprema de México Academic subscribers to Lexis may access this searchable database of judgments issued by the Supreme Court of Mexico. Judgments are only available in Spanish. No English translations are provided. Search terms must be entered in Spanish. |
| New Zealand | New Zealand Legal Information Institute (NZLII) NZLII provides free online access to decisions of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court, as well as many magistrate courts and specialized tribunals. To retrieve a known case by party name and year, use the Browsing Menu and begin by selecting the relevant court or tribunal. To search by keyword, use the Advanced Search and select "All Case Law Databases" to limit the search to case law. All New Zealand Cases Lexis provides online access to decisions issued by the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court, as published in The New Zealand Law Reports; and to decisions issued by the District Court of New Zealand, as published in The District Court Reports. Decisions published in more than half a dozen specialized and subject-specific case law reporters also are available. Dates of coverage vary. |
| Singapore | Singapore Law Reports Online The vlexJustis legal research platform provides online access to this reporter series, which selectively publishes decisions issued by the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and the Constitutional Tribunal of Singapore. Coverage is from 1965-present. To retrieve a case by citation to the Singapore Law Reports (SLR), scroll down to the Citation Search box and enter the citation in the box. |
| South Africa |
Butterworth's South African Constitutional Law Reports |
| South Korea (Republic of Korea) | Korea Cases This Westlaw database includes English translations of decisions issued by the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of South Korea, as well as selected decisions from intermediate appellate courts. Coverage is from 2000-present. |
| United Kingdom |
ICLR Online Find Case Law |