The German law API

Quick start

Every endpoint is a plain GET that returns JSON. Try it in your terminal:

curl "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/search?q=k%C3%BCndigung&limit=3"

Basics

Full-text search

Search across all federal statutes. Ranks by relevance, pins curated matches for common terms and returns a plain-text snippet for each hit.

Example

curl "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/search?q=k%C3%BCndigung&limit=2"

const r = await fetch(
  "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/search?q=" + encodeURIComponent("kündigung") + "&limit=2"
);
const { results } = await r.json();
console.log(results[0].ref, results[0].jurabk, results[0].url);

{
  "query": "kündigung",
  "results": [
    {
      "jurabk": "KSchG",
      "slug": "kschg",
      "ref": "§ 1",
      "ref_norm": "1",
      "heading": "Sozial ungerechtfertigte Kündigungen",
      "rank": 0.48,
      "snippet": "Kündigung des Arbeitsverhältnisses gegenüber einem …",
      "law_url": "KSchG",
      "url": "https://recht.nulegal.eu/gesetze/KSchG/1"
    }
  ]
}

jurabk ist der Schlüssel, mit dem /v1/law/{abbrev} und /v1/norm/{abbrev}/{ref} arbeiten — er bleibt unverändert. Wo dieser Schlüssel nicht die Zitierform ist, liefert die Antwort zusätzlich display_abk: die Bezeichnung, die auch auf den Seiten dieser Site steht. Das betrifft zwei Fälle — Fundstellennachweis-Kennungen des Bundesrechts ("jurabk": "AO 1977" → "display_abk": "AO", "SGB 2" → "SGB II") und Landesrecht Brandenburg, dessen Portal für 144 Dokumente keine Abkürzung veröffentlicht und wo der Schlüssel eine interne Dokument-ID ist ("jurabk": "VT-ID242586" → "display_abk": "Vertrag zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhl und dem Land Brandenburg"). Das Feld fehlt, wenn beide gleich wären — bei den meisten Treffern also. Für Anzeigezwecke: r.display_abk ?? r.jurabk.

Curated pages

Some questions no single statute answers. “Wie viel Schmerzensgeld nach einem Unfall?” is one: § 253 BGB grants a “billige Entschädigung in Geld” and names no amount. For those queries the response carries an extra pages array next to results — curated pages on this site that do answer the question, each with the figures it shows, so you can answer without a second request. results is unaffected, and pages is absent for the vast majority of queries, so existing clients need no change. Every entry carries "type": "page", which is how you tell one apart from a norm hit if you merge the two lists.

{
  "query": "schmerzensgeld nach unfall wie viel",
  "results": [ … ],
  "pages": [
    {
      "type": "page",
      "kind": "schmerzensgeldtabelle",
      "title": "Schmerzensgeldtabelle: Verkehrsunfall",
      "url": "https://recht.nulegal.eu/schmerzensgeldtabelle?kontext=verkehrsunfall",
      "description": "199 Entscheidungen deutscher Gerichte mit zugesprochenem Schmerzensgeld (Verkehrsunfall): Median 4.500 €, Spanne …",
      "stats": { "n": 199, "median_eur": 4500.0, "min_eur": 100.0, "max_eur": 500000.0 },
      "updated": "2026-07-27"
    }
  ]
}

The same match drives the hint shown above the results on /suche, so the website and the API never disagree about which page answers a query.

Case-law search

Semantic search over court decisions. A natural-language question in, decisions out. Hits carry the best-matching paragraph number (rn) and a snippet.

Example

curl "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/case-search?q=wann%20darf%20mein%20chef%20mir%20k%C3%BCndigen&limit=2"

{
  "query": "wann darf mein chef mir kündigen",
  "results": [
    {
      "court": "BAG",
      "decided": "2011-11-24",
      "aktenzeichen": "2 AZR 429/10",
      "doktyp": "Urteil",
      "rn": null,
      "snippet": "Kündigung noch nach Fristablauf wirksam …",
      "source": "rii",
      "url": "https://recht.nulegal.eu/rechtsprechung/bag/2011-11-24/2-azr-429-10"
    }
  ]
}

When a result comes from an Open-Database-Licence source, the response adds an attribution array. If present, show it alongside the results.

More endpoints

The same API also resolves single norms and citations:

How much text a resolve result carries

POST /v1/resolve truncates by default. A resolved norm’s text is the first 300 characters of the whole provision, cut on a word boundary and ending in …, and it is the same 300 characters whichever subsection you cited. A resolved decision’s preview is 300 characters of its Leitsatz. text_truncated says which you got. Do not verify a quotation against a truncated field. Three ways to get the real text:

Both include values are off by default, so a request that does not send the field gets exactly the payload it always got. An unknown value is a 422, not a silent no-op.

Citations with more than one subsection

A citation may name several subsections, a range of them, or several paragraphs sharing one law name — § 1374 Abs. 1 und 3 BGB, § 1376 Abs. 1–3 BGB, § 543 Abs. 1, Abs. 2 Satz 1 Nr. 1 und Abs. 3 BGB, §§ 4, 7 KSchG. All of these resolve, and two fields carry what was written:

A §§-range (§§ 305–310 BGB) keeps its existing shape: range plus every norm in between under norms.

curl -s -X POST "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/resolve" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"citations": ["§ 1374 Abs. 1 und 3 BGB", "ECLI:DE:BGH:2013:201113UXIIZR77.12.0"],
       "include": ["leitsatz"]}'

A repealed statute, or a provision that was removed from one, has no text in force. /v1/norm, /v1/preview and /v1/resolve then answer with the last known text rather than an empty one, and label it: status is repealed or in_force (the law's own status, as /v1/law reports it), text_status is current or historical, and version.valid_to carries the date the text stopped being observed. Treat text_status: "historical" as "this is not the law in force today". ?asof= is unaffected: a date after the repeal still answers a 404, because nothing applied then.

An interactive reference with every parameter is at /docs (OpenAPI).

Citation check (preview)

Not yet enabled in production. This endpoint is built and tested but switched off on the live service; it is documented here so that anyone building against the API can see the contract before it goes live. It is the first operation of the agent API — the paid, keyed surface described in drafts/agent-api/DESIGN.md. Everything above it on this page stays free and unchanged.

Two layers answer it. An exact or near-exact quotation is settled by string matching, with no model involved — that answer carries basis: "containment". A paraphrase is settled by a verifier model reading the resolved source text, and carries basis: "model". The string-match verdict is reported either way under containment (verbatim / near / absent).

A citation with a subdivision is read as written: § 823 Abs. 2 BGB is verified against Absatz 2 and nothing else, and a subdivision the norm does not have answers not_found rather than a verdict about a different Absatz.

undetermined is a real answer and needs handling: it means the check could not be completed — not that the statement is unsupported. reason says which (model_rate_capped, model_unavailable, model_declined_source, source_text_unavailable, source_incomplete, historical_version_unsupported). Treating it as a failed check would report a correct citation as a fabrication.

Two of those are worth knowing about in advance. Some provisions are held with no text at all — a number of EU regulation articles among them — and a citation to one answers source_text_unavailable rather than a verdict about an empty string. And a citation that names another version (§ 306 BGB a.F.) is declined rather than checked against the text in force, which is a different provision: ask /v1/norm/{law}/{ref}?asof=YYYY-MM-DD for a Fassung.

curl -sX POST https://recht.nulegal.eu/agent/v1/quote/verify \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"statement":"Eine ohne Anhörung des Betriebsrats ausgesprochene Kündigung ist unwirksam.",
       "citation":"§ 102 Abs. 1 BetrVG"}'

An Authorization: Bearer key is optional. Without one the call is served and graded on ordinary traffic classification; automated traffic gets the string-match answer and undetermined where a model would have been needed. Keys, quotas and pricing are not open for sign-up yet — write to kontakt@nulegal.de if you want to be told when they are.

Link to a decision (permalinks)

Want to link to a court decision from your site, newsletter or app without knowing our URLs? Build a link from what a citation already gives you — court, date, docket number (Aktenzeichen). A unique match answers with a 301 redirect to the decision page; if several decisions share the docket number you get a small picker page; if we do not have the decision you get a 404 with pointers to external sources.

Example

curl -I "https://recht.nulegal.eu/finde?gericht=BGH&datum=26.06.2023&az=VIa%20ZR%20335%2F21"
# HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
# location: /rechtsprechung/bgh/2023-06-26/via-zr-335-21

These are HTML endpoints meant for links, not JSON. All of them are stable: a link that resolves today keeps resolving.

Deep links to a Randnummer or Absatz

Decision pages carry a permanent anchor per paragraph (Randnummer): append #rd_N to the decision URL. Norm pages carry one per numbered subsection (Absatz): append #abs-N to the norm URL. The page highlights the targeted passage and shows its permalink right there, ready to copy.

https://recht.nulegal.eu/rechtsprechung/bgh/2023-06-26/via-zr-335-21#rd_13
https://recht.nulegal.eu/gesetze/BGB/823#abs-2

Both fragment formats are permanent, under the same discipline as the resolver endpoints above. Decision texts are immutable, so a #rd_N link keeps pointing at the same passage forever. Norm texts follow the legislature: #abs-N always resolves to paragraph N of the current version, which an amendment may renumber or repeal, so cite the passage in text alongside the link where permanence matters. /v1/case-search already returns the best-matching Randnummer per hit (rn) and a ready deep link in url. The full stability promise, in German, is documented at /vernetzung.

Randnummern as data

A pinpoint citation names a paragraph — “BGH, VIII ZR 67/18 Rn. 27” — and recovering Rn. 27 from a 40.000-character text_plain by regex is how integrations end up citing the wrong one. So the endpoint hands you the paragraphs the decision page itself renders. GET /v1/case/{doknr}?paragraphs=1 adds two keys and changes nothing else; without the parameter the response is exactly what it always was.

curl "https://recht.nulegal.eu/v1/case/KORE601832026?paragraphs=1"

Read anchor_basis before citing. It is native_numbering for the juris decision-XML corpus, where both numbers come out of the same field — that is the BGH, BVerfG, BAG, BVerwG, BSG and BFH text served from rechtsprechung-im-internet.de. It is document_order elsewhere, and there the two numbers really do differ: in EuGH judgments our index runs one ahead of the printed number for the whole judgment, because the title block is a paragraph too. Where a decision prints no paragraph numbers at all — much of the older BGH text, which reaches us as extracted PDF — every rn is null and the paragraphs are still returned in document order, so you can quote a passage without being able to name a Randnummer for it.

Usage and fair use

• The API is free. There is no key and no hard rate limit today. Please stay reasonable and cache responses; heavy or automated bulk use may be throttled.
• Text and data mining is expressly permitted. The pages and the API are open to AI assistants: our robots.txt names the admitted AI agents and opens /v1 to them at the crawl delay it states, and /llms.txt documents the same rule for machine readers.
• One condition: automated access must not present itself as a human visitor. Use an accurate user agent that identifies your operator or includes a contact route, and do not circumvent technical access restrictions. Details in the Terms of Use.
• Statute text is public domain under § 5 UrhG. Court decisions carry the licence of their source; where an attribution field is present, keep it with the data.
• All texts are consolidated, non-official reading versions. The binding source is the Federal Law Gazette at recht.bund.de.
• Building something with it? We would like to hear about it: reach us via nu:legal.

Looking to embed citations on your own site instead? See the citation badge — or let Vernetzung link every legal citation in your pages automatically (API, WordPress plugin, or a one-line script tag).