Introduction

 

Switzerland became a federal state in 1848. It is a confederation of 26 cantons and half-cantons and is the second oldest confederation after the United States of America. (See Bovey, G.M. The Swiss Legal System and research). Switzerland has a romano-germanic legal system in which precedence is given to enacted or written law. There is a set order of priority in which the Federal Constitution is the most important and is followed by codes, other federal statutes and administrative regulations. The law is divided into public and private law. Public law is concerned with the organization of the State and other public bodies. It covers constitutional/administrative law, tax law, criminal law and public international law. Private law covers law of persons, family law, inheritance and property law. (See Dessemontet & Ansay. Introduction to Swiss Law. 2004).

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Constitution

A new online resource for material relating to foreign constitutions, started in 2010, is World Constitutions Illustrated. This is a contemporary and historical collection of documents, which is available as part of the IALS subscription to HeinOnline. It is available to all users on site at IALS. Offsite access is limited to staff and students of IALS, SAS and University of London. It includes consolidated and original texts of the Constitution for different periods in time. It also provides full text links to a range of historical commentaries and articles about the Swiss Constitution, selected by the editors.

The website of the Swiss Confederation provides full text access to a non official version of the constitution in a selection of other languages. These currently include Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese and Nepali.

IALS also holds the printed looseleaf publication. Blaustein. Constitutions of the Countries of the World. [1971-]  This is no longer being updated but holds a copy of the Swiss Constitution as it stood in 1999.

 

Legislation

Primary legislation

IALS Library subscribed to the series Recueil Systématique du Droit Fédéral (until 2006) and to Amtliche Sammlung des Bundesrechts (until 2009). Both had accompanying index  volumes to allow the user to browse by subject area. These are still available on the open shelves.

A more current source is the web site of the Swiss Confederation. The web site can be viewed and searched in French, German, Italian, English and Romansh. It should be noted however that the English translation of texts is not an official version because English is not an official language of Switzerland.

Codes:

IALS holds a wide selection of texts which provide text and/or commentary on different sections of the Swiss penal and civil codes. These are mainly in German or French but the library holds a small selection of fairly recent publications in English.

Scyboz, G. et al. Code Civil Suisse et Code des Obligations. Annotés. Helbing Lichtenhahn 2008

 Williams, I. (trans). The Swiss Civil Code (English translation) 1976

(with update supplementary volume, 2000)

Killias, M. et al. Précis de Droit Pénal Général. 3d.  Stämpfli Editions SA Berne 2008

Swiss Code of Obligations. Volume 1, Contract Law. (Articles 1-551) English translation. Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce 2005 revised ed.

Swiss Code of Obligations II. Company Law (Articles 552-964). English translation of the Official Text Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce. 2010 updated edition.

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Law reports

IALS holds  Entscheidungen des Schweizerischen Bundesgerichts (main law reports series of the  Swiss Federal Court)  in printed format since Vol. 1 (1875). It is also known by its French title Arrêts du Tribunal Fédéral Suisse. The texts of the published reports are available in German, French and also Italian, the other official language of Switzerland.

IALS also holds an older series Revue der Gerichtspraxis im Gebiete des Bundescivilrechts (Revue de la Jurisprudence en Matière de Droit Civil Fédéral) Vol. 1 (1883) - Vol. 20 (1902) in the closed basement.

Electronic resource: The website of the Swiss Federal/Constitutional Court gives access to full text decisions of the court from 1954- (BGE Leitentscheide) Earlier decisions (1875-) are available on the University of Bern site and a link is provided.  From 2000 a more comprehensive selection of reports is available to search. The search can be restricted by date of judgment, court or legal subject area.

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Digests

IALS holds one guide to Swiss arbitration law.

Müller, C. International arbitration : a guide to the complete Swiss case law (unreported and reported). Thomson, 2004.

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Books

IALS currently subscribes to the published series of books Schweizerisches Privatrecht. which started in 1969. The individual volumes cover different subject areas within Swiss private law and are gradually updated when required. There is also a French language version of the series Traité de Droit Privé Suisse which is not held at IALS.

 

English language sources held at IALS include:

Dessemont, F. & Ansay, T. Introduction to Swiss law. 3rd ed. 2004, Kluwer Law International

Lengauer, D. et al. ed. Company law in Switzerland. 2009, Schulthess

Thévenoz, L. Trusts in Switzerland   2001 (bilingual English/French)

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Research guides

Bovey, Gregory M. The Swiss legal system and research. (GlobaLex. Global Research Tools) 2006

These guides provide a detailed background introduction to the country, its legal structure and information sources with links to relevant websites.

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 Journals

It is possible to search for articles on Swiss law using the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals. This is available onsite at IALS within the Electronic Law Library. The database does not hold full text articles. English terms can be used in the search but articles on Swiss law may be in French, German or Italian.

IALS Library has a current subscription to the following printed titles.

Zeitschrift für Schweizerisches Recht (1852-). IALS holds the NF (Neue Folge) series (vol. 1, 1882-)

Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Strafrecht = Revue Pénale Suisse (1895-). This was previously known as Zeitschrift für  Schweizer Strafrecht (1888-1895) which is also held at IALS.

Zeitschrift des Bernischen Juristenvereins = Revue de la Société des Juristes Bernois. (vol. 102, 1966- held at IALS)

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Online resources

Swiss Confederation: In addition to providing full text access to legislation and to the Constitution, this site provides a wide variety of background information about the Swiss Federal Authorities. There are links to individual government departments and to the sites of the main courts and individual cantons . A publications department provides information about relevant documents.

Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights: A research and teaching institute created by the University of Geneva. The institute focuses on law of armed conflict and international human rights.

Swiss Institute of Comparative Law

The Institute provides a legal advice service on topics relating to European Union law, national legal systems and international private and public law. The library catalogue is available online and visiting researchers are welcome to use the library. The site interface is available in English, French, German and Italian.

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