Electronic copy of the 1999 Swiss Constitution made freely available online by the Comparative Constitutions Project at the University of Texas at Austin. The Constitution is provided in PDF and is amended up to 2014. There are chapters on fundamental rights, the role of the confederation, cantons and communes and the federal authorities.
Official site of the Federal Authorities of the Swiss Confederation. Provides background information about the Swiss Confederation, the Federal Council and Federal Administration, with links to the current Constitution and the sites of the individual Swiss Cantons. Includes a free database of Swiss legislation in the official languages. Also has selected laws in English; these translations are for information only. A selection of federal publications is available to download in PDF format. It is possible to subscribe to current news from the Federal Administration.
The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property was founded in Bern in 1888. It is the Federal Agency for intellectual property matters but has its own legal personality and is independent of the Swiss Federal budget. Its primary role is as a first point of contact for customers who need industrial property rights. The site provides background information about patents, trademarks, designs and copyright, with links to further details. Forms for completion and submission are available to download in Word and PDF formats.
The Swiss Bankers Association is the representative association for financial institutions in Switzerland. Publications include a code of conduct, papers on risk management, and press releases, and are available in PDF. The feature on SPSS discusses Swiss Performance Presentation Standards, which are used to ensure performance reporting by banks in Switzerland. A feature on legislation and self-regulation outlines the legislative and regulatory framework in the Swiss financial services sector.
The website of the Swiss Data Protection Commissioner, in German, French, Italian or English. The English version includes basic information on data protection in Switzerland, an information sheet on unsolicited emails, selected Council of Europe texts, extracts from the Commissioner's annual report, and recent press releases. The full text of the Federal Law on Data Protection of 1992 is included. The German version contains all of these, as well as some recommendations of the Commissioner.
A resource guide explaining the legal system in Switzerland with bibliographic details of sources and links to materials available on the internet. The guide was written by Fridolin M.R. Walther who is an attorney-at-law with Gubler Walther Leuch in Bern, Switzerland. This latest version of the guide was published in LLRX.com in September 2003. The guide is in English but includes links to resources in German or French.
Section of WorldLII's Countries service covering Switzerland. A full range of browse and search features are provided. Browsable link collections include materials relating to the Courts, Government, Legislation, Other Indexes, Parliament and Research Centres with specific subject sections dealing with Financial Intelligence, Intellectual Property, Privacy and Taxation, Revenue and Customs. A series of stored search will automatically query all of the WorldLII catalog or databases.
Official site for the European Free Trade Association Court. The EFTA operates under the Stockholm Convention in the day-to-day management of the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA) and the coordination and development of trade agreements with third countries. The Court fulfils the judicial function within EFTA and has jurisdiction with regard to EFTA States which are parties to the European Economic Area Agreement (currently Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway).
The main purpose of this website is to give access to the full-text of reports of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. The Court's main functions are deciding on constitutional law matters in Switzerland, and hearing appeals in federal law matters. The period covered is 1954- to date (with reports back to 1875 linked to on another site) and the reports are available and searchable in French, German and Italian. The interface / presentation are available in these languages also.
Official compilation of the laws of the Confederation of Switzerland, available in French, German and Italian versions. This collection of texts of Swiss federal law is available free of charge. Texts are available mainly in PDF format, with some HTML. The main listing is alphabetically by title. There are also lists of internal law (constitutional, penal, private, educational and social, defence, transport, health, economy), a list of international agreements, and a list of selected public law texts. The site includes a search engine.
