The CODICES InfoBase is an open access research tool offered by the Venice Commission, formally known as the European Commission for Democracy through Law, an advisory body of the Council of Europe on constitutional matters. It presents leading constitutional case-law of 90 Constitutional Courts and Courts with equivalent jurisdiction to the public. This database contains over 10.000 judgments from over 100 courts, mainly in English and French as well as in 43 other languages. Also included are summaries of these judgments in English and French (précis), constitutions, law on the court and court descriptions explaining their functioning and the Joint Council on Constitutional Justice’s mini-conferences reports.
Jurisdictions include EU member states, but also countries such as Armenia, Chile, Argentina, Bahrain, Gabon, Barbados, Israel, Norway, Belize, Lebanon, South-Africa, Palestine, Japan, Benin etc.
This database also includes international treaties such as the European Convention on Human Rights. One click on an article of the ECHR brings up not only the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, but more importantly, the case law of the national Court referring to that article of the Convention. While the case law of the European Court of Human Rights is easily available in HUDOC, with this search you also carry out a comparative analysis of national case law relating to an article of the Convention.
A highlight of the CODICES InfoBase is the system of extensive links between the various parts of the database. Each reference to an article of a national constitution is linked to the text of the article. Conversely, a click on the articles of a constitution brings up the pertinent case law of the Court. The contributions, presented in CODICES, are prepared by liaison officers appointed by the Courts themselves. This database is updated, on average, every two weeks. Start your research here.
N.B. An instruction manual of CODICES InfoBase is available in the Peace Palace Library. Please contact the Service Desk for more information.