Foreign law

The focus of the acquisitions in the Library of Parliament’s foreign legal literature section concern constitutional, EU and international law, legal policy and comparative law. The collections also include literature on civil, criminal and procedural law.

Information packages compiled on foreign law include the main electronic sources of legal information of each respective country: their constitution, statutes, law books, law drafting materials and case law. In addition, databases, databanks and up-to-date information source guides are included together with legal literature on the respective countries included in the Library of Parliament collections.

The interpretation and use of foreign legal information require knowledge of the country’s legal system.

The information packages are in Finnish on our Finnish pages.

​Sweden – legal information sources

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and a representative democracy. Legislative power is exercised by a unicameral parliament.

Austria - legal sources

Austria is a federal republic, comprising nine states. Legislative and executive power is divided between the federal republic and the states.

German Federal Republic – legal sources

Germany is a federal republic, comprising 16 states. Legislative power falls exclusively under the remit of each state or is divided between them.

Belgium - legal sources

Belgium is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy that has been transformed into a federal state from a single unified state. The parliament of Belgium is bicameral.

France - legal sources

France is a republic in which the legislative power falls under the remit of a bicameral parliament.