Search Legal Documents
legal_searchSearch legal documents across jurisdictions (DE federal, EU, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony) using hybrid semantic + keyword search. Returns ranked results with content snippets, not full text.
Rephrase colloquial language into legal terminology for best results. Formuliere Suchanfragen als natürliche Sätze, nicht als Keyword-Listen (z.B. 'Wann verjährt ein Schadensersatzanspruch?' statt 'Verjährung Schadensersatz Frist BGB'). Das System durchsucht Gesetzestexte — verwende die Sprache des Gesetzes, nicht Doktrin-Begriffe (z.B. 'Auslegung mehrdeutiger Klauseln' statt 'contra proferentem'). Set document_kind to match what the question needs: any norm subtype ('statute'/'regulation'/'directive') when it asks for the rule itself — its requirements, definitions or deadlines; 'decision' when it asks how courts apply a rule. The three norm subtypes form ONE filter class — any of them admits all three, so you need not tell statute from regulation from directive, and a reflexive 'statute' never hides an EU regulation/directive. The only real cut this filter makes is norm vs. case-law: 'decision' restricts to court decisions and drops every norm BEFORE ranking, so it can hide the statute that answers a rule question. Leave document_kind empty when the question genuinely needs both (norm + its case-law application), or when German-vs-EU law is unclear (e.g. data protection: BDSG vs DSGVO) — then consider running two searches with different filters instead of guessing. Never combine a statute law_abbreviation with a decision scope ('decision', a decision source_type, court or decision_type): decisions carry file-number identifiers, not statute abbreviations, so that intersection is always empty — use cited_norm instead to find decisions applying a law. See legal://filter_values for the per-value definitions and the disambiguation list. Set law_abbreviation, jurisdiction and source_type only when the user explicitly names a specific law or jurisdiction. When results span multiple laws or versions, check the legal://rechtsrahmen resource to pick the correct jurisdiction (e.g. EU vs national, substantive vs procedural).
COMMON PITFALLS — choose the correct law:
Procedural law by jurisdiction: ZPO (zivilrecht), STPO (strafrecht), VWGO (verwaltungsrecht), ARBGG (arbeitsrecht), SGG (sozialrecht), BVERFGG (verfassungsrecht), FAMFG (familienrecht)
AO, ESTG, KSTG, USTG, FGO: AO=procedure, EStG/KStG/UStG=substantive
VVG, BGB: Insurance rescission → BGB §§ 812ff, not VVG
VERSAUSGLG, FAMFG: VersAusglG=substantive, FamFG=procedure
APOG, AMG: ApoG=operation, AMG=drug approval
WEHRPFLG, SG: WPflG=conscription, SG=soldiers
AGG, BETRVG: AGG=anti-discrimination, BetrVG=works council
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| court | No | Filter by court: BGH, BVerwG, BFH, BAG, BSG, BVerfG, BPatG, GmSOGB, Sächsisches OVG, Oberverwaltungsgericht NRW, Oberlandesgericht Düsseldorf, Oberlandesgericht Hamm, Oberlandesgericht Köln, Landesarbeitsgericht Düsseldorf, Landesarbeitsgericht Hamm, Landesarbeitsgericht Köln, Landessozialgericht NRW, Finanzgericht Düsseldorf, Finanzgericht Köln, Finanzgericht Münster, Verfassungsgerichtshof NRW, EuGH, EuG. | |
| query | Yes | Search query as a natural sentence using statutory language (not keywords or doctrinal terms). | |
| top_k | No | Number of results to return (default 5). | |
| chapter | No | Filter by chapter/section within a law. Rarely needed — can reduce recall. Only useful with law_abbreviation. | |
| date_to | No | Include results until this date (YYYY-MM-DD). | |
| language | No | Corpus language: 'de' (default — the full German + EU corpus) or 'en' (English-language corpus: currently EDPB/EDSA data-protection guidance only; much smaller than 'de'). DE and EN are separate corpora — a document published in both languages has one entry per language under the same abbreviation. Set 'en' only when the user explicitly works in English or asks for the English version. | |
| date_from | No | Include results from this date onwards (YYYY-MM-DD). | |
| cited_norm | No | Restrict results to court decisions that verifiably cite this provision (citation-graph filter, e.g. '§ 573 BGB' or 'Art. 6 DSGVO'). Combine with a case-specific query — e.g. query='Eigenbedarfskündigung Härtefall hohes Alter', cited_norm='§ 573 BGB' — to get decisions that both apply the provision AND match the facts of the case. This is the preferred way to find case law for a specific provision and a specific question. Matching is paragraph-level (Abs./Satz/Nr. are ignored). Only court decisions carry citations, so this filter implicitly restricts to case law — no document_kind needed. For the raw citation inventory of a provision (newest first), use legal_find_citing_decisions instead. For an EU directive both the directive article ('Art. 9 Richtlinie 2011/83/EU') and the national transposition norm ('§ 355 BGB') are valid filters: the directive article matches EU case law (EuGH/EuG) and German decisions citing it directly (richtlinienkonforme Auslegung), while the transposition norm matches the larger body of German decisions applying the transposed rule. Prefer the transposition norm for everyday German case law, the directive article for EU-level interpretation; run a plain legal_search first if you do not know the transposition norm. EU regulations (DSGVO, MDR) are cited directly. | |
| source_type | No | Filter by source: 'gii' (German federal laws like BGB, StGB), 'eurlex' (EU regulations like DSGVO, DSA), 'eurlex_caselaw' (EU court decisions, EuGH/EuG), 'rechtsprechung' (federal court decisions, 2010 onwards), 'bverfge' (BVerfG leading decisions from the official reporter BVerfGE, up to 2009 — the reported slice, not every BVerfG decision of that era), 'bverwg' (BVerwG judgments (Urteile) up to 2009), 'sachsen_rechtsprechung' (Saxon OVG decisions), 'nrw_rechtsprechung' (NRW higher-court decisions: OVG/OLG/LAG/LSG/FG/VerfGH), 'bayern_gesetze' (Bavaria), 'nrw_gesetze' (North Rhine-Westphalia), 'verwaltungsvorschriften' (federal administrative regulations, e.g. TA Luft, BMGVwV), 'edsa' (EDPB/EDSA data-protection guidance — soft law, not enacted norms; mostly English, see the language parameter), 'dsk' (Datenschutzkonferenz guidance: Orientierungshilfen, Kurzpapiere, Beschlüsse — the German supervisory authorities' reading of GDPR/BDSG), 'gesetzesmaterialien' (legislative materials — Gesetzesbegründung from Bundestag Drucksachen, the legislator's intent behind a federal norm; the corpus includes draft bills that never became law. Materials appear ONLY when explicitly requested via this value or document_kind='explanatory_memorandum' — an unfiltered search never returns them). Leave empty for cross-source search. | |
| jurisdiction | No | Filter by jurisdiction: 'de' (all German law — matches federal AND state law, incl. Staatsverträge like the Medienstaatsvertrag), 'eu' (EU), 'de_by' (Bavaria only), 'de_nw' (North Rhine-Westphalia only), 'de_sn' (Saxony only). For federal statutes ONLY, use source_type='gii' instead. Leave empty for cross-jurisdiction search. | |
| decision_type | No | Filter by decision type: 'Urteil' or 'Beschluss'. | |
| document_kind | No | Filter by document class: the three norm subtypes 'statute', 'regulation' and 'directive' form ONE filter class — any of them admits all three, so you cannot (and need not) tell them apart, and an EU regulation or directive is never hidden by a reflexive 'statute'. Three values discriminate: 'decision' restricts to court case-law (prefer it for how-a-norm-is-applied questions), 'guidance' restricts to supervisory-authority soft law (EDPB/EDSA and Datenschutzkonferenz — authoritative readings of the GDPR/BDSG, not enacted norms and not binding), and 'explanatory_memorandum' restricts to legislative materials (Gesetzesbegründung / BT-Drucksachen — the legislator's intent behind a norm; prefer it for ratio-legis or purpose-of-an-amendment questions). Materials are opt-in: an unfiltered search never returns them — set this value (or source_type='gesetzesmaterialien') to search them, or use legal_get_materials for a specific provision. Leave empty for mixed questions. See legal://filter_values for the per-value definitions and disambiguation. | |
| law_abbreviation | No | Filter by law abbreviation, e.g. 'bgb', 'dsgvo'. Leave empty for thematic questions. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||