Skip to content
This repository was archived by the owner on Jul 7, 2026. It is now read-only.

DATA_SOURCES.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
493 lines (346 loc) · 14.5 KB

DATA_SOURCES.md

File metadata and controls

493 lines (346 loc) · 14.5 KB
Raw

Data Sources and Authority

This document details the provenance, authority level, and reliability of legal data in this Tool.

Source Hierarchy

1. Official Government Sources (Highest Authority)

Riksdagen (Swedish Parliament)

URL: https://data.riksdagen.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Official / Authoritative

What It Is:

  • Swedish Parliament's official open data API
  • Primary source for statute text (Svensk författningssamling - SFS)
  • Maintained by Riksdagens förvaltningskontor

Used For:

  • Statute full text
  • SFS numbers and metadata
  • Issue dates and in-force dates
  • Document structure (chapters, sections, paragraphs)

Reliability:

  • High: Official government publication
  • Currency: Updated when statutes are published in SFS
  • Completeness: Comprehensive coverage of all SFS statutes
  • Accuracy: Authoritative legal text

Limitations:

  • Lag Time: May not include today's publications (typically 24-48 hour delay)
  • Amendments: Consolidated text may lag amendments (not always real-time)
  • No Annotations: Plain statutory text without commentary or cross-references
  • API Rate Limits: 0.5s delay between requests to avoid overload

Attribution: Data from Riksdagen under Swedish PSI (Public Sector Information) regulations.

Domstolsverket (Swedish Courts Administration)

URL: https://www.domstol.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Official / Authoritative

What It Is:

  • Swedish National Courts Administration
  • Official source for court decisions and judicial information
  • Operates official legal information portal (Lagrummet.se)

Used For (Indirectly):

  • Case law metadata (via lagen.nu, which sources from Domstolsverket)
  • Official court decision references
  • Precedent identification

Reliability:

  • High: Official government agency
  • Currency: Decisions published after finalization
  • Accuracy: Authoritative court decisions

Direct Access: This Tool does NOT directly access Domstolsverket APIs. Case law is sourced from lagen.nu (see below), which aggregates Domstolsverket data.

2. Community-Maintained Sources (Secondary Authority)

Lagen.nu

URL: https://lagen.nu/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐ Community-Maintained / Supplementary

What It Is:

  • Community-driven legal information website
  • Aggregates and republishes Swedish court decisions
  • Maintained by volunteers and legal tech enthusiasts
  • Licensed under CC-BY Domstolsverket (Creative Commons Attribution)

Used For:

  • Case law (rättsfall) full text and summaries
  • Court decision metadata (case numbers, decision dates, courts)
  • Cross-references between statutes and case law
  • Keyword tagging of cases

Reliability:

  • Medium-High: Generally accurate but not official
  • Currency: Updated regularly but may lag official sources by days/weeks
  • Completeness: Not comprehensive — coverage varies by court and time period
  • Accuracy: Community transcription; errors possible

Limitations:

  • ⚠️ Not Official: Lagen.nu is NOT a government source
  • ⚠️ Transcription Errors: Manual entry can introduce mistakes
  • ⚠️ Incomplete Coverage: Not all court decisions are included
  • ⚠️ Volunteer-Driven: No SLA or guaranteed update cadence
  • ⚠️ Missing Recent Cases: New decisions may not be immediately available

Why We Use It:

  • Open Access: Free, machine-readable case law
  • Best Available Option: No official open API for Swedish case law
  • CC-BY License: Legal to aggregate and redistribute with attribution
  • Good Faith Effort: Community maintains high quality standards

Attribution:

Case law data from lagen.nu, licensed CC-BY Domstolsverket. Lagen.nu is a community-maintained project, not an official government source.

Cross-Check Required: Always verify case law citations with:

  • Lagrummet.se (official portal)
  • Karnov or Juno (commercial databases with editorial oversight)
  • Original court opinions (via Domstol.se or case filing systems)

3. Commercial Legal Databases (Professional Standard)

This Tool does NOT include commercial database content, but professional users should cross-check with these authoritative sources:

Karnov (Wolters Kluwer)

URL: https://pro.karnovgroup.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorially Verified / Professional Standard

What It Is:

  • Leading Swedish legal database (acquired by Thomson Reuters)
  • Editorially verified statute text and case law
  • Annotations, commentary, and cross-references by legal experts
  • Real-time updates and currency guarantees

Why It's Better:

  • Editorial Oversight: Legal experts verify all content
  • Annotations: Commentary explains application and interpretation
  • Cross-References: Linked to preparatory works, case law, and doctrine
  • Currency SLA: Guaranteed update timeframes
  • No Transcription Errors: Direct feed from official sources

Cost: Subscription-based (€100-300/month per user)

Juno (Norstedts Juridik)

URL: https://juno.nj.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorially Verified / Professional Standard

What It Is:

  • Major Swedish legal database (Norstedts Juridik)
  • Competing with Karnov for professional market
  • Similar features: annotations, commentary, editorial oversight

Zeteo (Wolters Kluwer)

URL: https://zeteo.wolterskluwer.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorially Verified / Professional Standard

What It Is:

  • Wolters Kluwer's comprehensive legal information system
  • Integrated access to statutes, case law, and legal literature

Lagrummet.se (Official Portal)

URL: https://lagrummet.se/

Authority Level: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Official / Free

What It Is:

  • Domstolsverket's official legal information portal
  • Free access to statutes and case law
  • Not as feature-rich as commercial databases but authoritative

Best For:

  • Verifying statute text without paid subscription
  • Checking case law citations
  • Official reference for professional work

Data Quality Comparison

Source Authority Currency Annotations Cost Professional Use
Riksdagen Official High None Free ✅ Statute text verification
Domstolsverket Official High None Free ✅ Case law verification
Lagen.nu Community Medium None Free ⚠️ Supplementary only
Karnov Professional Very High Expert €€€ ✅ Primary professional source
Juno Professional Very High Expert €€€ ✅ Primary professional source
Lagrummet.se Official High None Free ✅ Official verification

How This Tool Uses Sources

Statute Data Pipeline

Riksdagen API → Ingestion Script → JSON Seed Files → SQLite Database → MCP Tool
  1. Manual Ingestion: npm run ingest -- <SFS-number>
  2. Parsing: Extract chapters, sections, provision text
  3. Storage: Normalized in SQLite with FTS5 indexing
  4. Update Check: npm run check-updates compares local vs. remote dates

Frequency: Manual (user-initiated) — NO automatic sync

Lag Time: Depends on when user last ran npm run ingest:relevant

Case Law Data Pipeline

Lagen.nu RDF Feed → Sync Script → SQLite Database → MCP Tool
  1. Incremental Sync: npm run sync:cases fetches new cases since last sync
  2. RDF Parsing: Extract court, case number, decision date, summary
  3. FTS5 Indexing: Full-text search on summaries and keywords
  4. Metadata Tracking: Last sync timestamp stored in case_law_sync_metadata table

Frequency: Manual (user-initiated) — recommended weekly

Lag Time:

  • Lagen.nu may lag Domstolsverket by days/weeks
  • This Tool may lag lagen.nu by weeks (if user doesn't sync)

Data Freshness Strategy

Current Mechanism: Manual Updates

Problem: Data goes stale quickly Impact: Professional users may rely on outdated law

How to Update:

# Check if statutes need updates
npm run check-updates

# Re-ingest updated statutes
npm run ingest -- 2018:218 data/seed/2018_218.json

# Sync case law
npm run sync:cases

# Rebuild database
npm run build:db

Recommended Frequency:

  • Statutes: Monthly check via npm run check-updates
  • Case law: Weekly sync via npm run sync:cases
  • Emergency: Immediately before critical legal work

Proposed Automation (Not Yet Implemented)

GitHub Actions Workflow (Future Enhancement):

name: Sync Legal Data
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 2 * * 1'  # Every Monday at 2 AM UTC

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - run: npm run check-updates
      - run: npm run sync:cases
      - run: npm run build:db
      - uses: stefanzweifel/git-auto-commit-action@v4
        with:
          commit_message: 'chore: weekly legal data sync'

Benefits:

  • Automatic weekly case law sync
  • Statute staleness monitoring
  • CI/CD database rebuilds
  • Version-controlled data updates

Risks:

  • Breaking changes in upstream APIs
  • Large database commits (SQLite binary blobs)
  • Requires careful testing before merging

Attribution Requirements

Lagen.nu Data (CC-BY Domstolsverket)

When using case law data from this Tool, you MUST attribute:

In Research Notes:

Case law data sourced from lagen.nu (https://lagen.nu), licensed CC-BY Domstolsverket.

In Tool Responses (Already Implemented): All case law results include _metadata.source and _metadata.attribution fields.

In Publications/Papers: If citing statistics or aggregated case law data:

Swedish court decisions accessed via lagen.nu (https://lagen.nu), a community-maintained legal information resource. Data originally published by Domstolsverket, licensed CC-BY.

Riksdagen Data (Public Sector Information)

Riksdagen data is published under Swedish PSI regulations (Public Sector Information Act).

No Specific Attribution Required by law, but recommended:

Statute text from Riksdagen Open Data (https://data.riksdagen.se/)

Verification Workflow for Professional Use

Recommended Process

  1. Initial Research: Use this Tool for preliminary searches

  2. Official Verification:

    Statute Text:   Riksdagen.se or Lagrummet.se
Case Law:       Domstol.se or Lagrummet.se

  3. Professional Database Cross-Check:

    Use Karnov/Juno for:
- Editorial annotations
- Cross-references to preparatory works
- Commentary on application
- Currency guarantees

  4. Document Sources:

    • Cite official sources in legal work (not this Tool)
    • Keep audit trail of verification steps

Source Authority Matrix

When to Trust Each Source

Legal Task This Tool Lagrummet Karnov/Juno
Quick lookup ✅ Fast ✅ Official ✅ Professional
Preliminary research ✅ Good starting point ✅ Authoritative ✅ Comprehensive
Cite in court filing ❌ Verify first ✅ Acceptable ✅ Professional standard
Client advice ❌ Verify first ⚠️ Verify currency ✅ Safe
Complex interpretation ❌ No annotations ⚠️ No commentary ✅ Expert commentary
Historical research ❌ Limited versions ⚠️ Limited ✅ Historical versions

Transparency Commitments

What We Disclose

  1. Source Provenance: Every result indicates data source
  2. Currency Metadata: Last-updated timestamps in responses
  3. Staleness Warnings: Alerts when data >30 days old
  4. Coverage Gaps: Explicit notice of missing sources (EU law, etc.)
  5. Authority Levels: Clear distinction between official and community sources

What We Don't Track

  • Individual user queries (not logged by this Tool)
  • Query frequency or patterns
  • User identity or organization
  • Client matter details

Privacy Note: See PRIVACY.md for full data handling details.

Source Updates and Monitoring

How to Check Data Currency

Check Statute Currency:

npm run check-updates
# Shows which SFS entries have remote updates

Check Case Law Currency:

SELECT last_sync_date, cases_count
FROM case_law_sync_metadata
WHERE id = 1;

Check via Tool: Use check_currency tool — includes case_law_stats in response:

{
  "case_law_stats": {
    "last_updated": "2026-02-05T10:30:00Z",
    "total_cases": 10453,
    "source": "lagen.nu"
  }
}

Upstream Source Changes

If Riksdagen API Changes

Symptoms:

  • Ingestion scripts fail
  • Empty or malformed data

Mitigation:

  • Monitor Riksdagen API status
  • Check GitHub issues for breaking changes
  • Update parsers in scripts/ingest-riksdagen.ts

If Lagen.nu Changes

Symptoms:

  • Case law sync fails
  • Missing case metadata

Mitigation:

  • Monitor lagen.nu GitHub
  • Check RDF feed structure changes
  • Update parsers in scripts/lib/lagennu-parser.ts

Contributing Data Quality Improvements

How to Report Data Issues

Found an error? Open a GitHub issue with:

  1. Provision/Case ID: Specific SFS or case number
  2. Expected: What the official source says
  3. Actual: What this Tool returns
  4. Source: Link to official source showing correct data

Label: data-quality

How to Contribute New Sources

Want to add additional legal sources (e.g., EU law, Nordic treaties)?

  1. Propose Source: Open GitHub discussion
  2. Verify License: Ensure data is openly licensed or API terms allow use
  3. Implement Parser: Follow existing patterns in scripts/
  4. Add Tests: Include test data and coverage
  5. Document Authority: Update this file with source authority analysis

Summary: Source Trust Levels

For Professional Legal Work:

Source Use Case Trust Level
Riksdagen Statute text ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fully trustworthy
Domstolsverket (direct) Case law ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fully trustworthy
Lagen.nu Case law (via this Tool) ⭐⭐⭐ Supplementary — verify
Karnov/Juno All legal research ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Professional standard
This Tool Initial research ⭐⭐⭐ Starting point — verify

Golden Rule: Always verify with official or professional-grade sources before relying on data in legal work.

Last Updated: 2026-02-12 Tool Version: 0.1.0 (Pilot/Research)