OpenLaws

aid: openlaws
name: OpenLaws
description: >-
  OpenLaws is a Public Benefit Corporation that provides programmatic access
  to U.S. law text — federal and state statutes, regulations, constitutions,
  and case law — through a unified Legal Data API. The platform exposes
  keyword and citation search, hierarchical division retrieval, historical
  versions with redline comparisons, citation parsing and validation, and
  deep links to authoritative government sources. Coverage spans 53 U.S.
  jurisdictions (50 states + D.C. + Puerto Rico + Federal) with more than
  4.3 million law sections under a single data model, targeted at RegTech,
  LegalTech, GRC / IRM, generative AI / RAG, and legal research workloads.
type: Index
position: Consumer
access: 3rd-Party
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
  - Legal
  - Law
  - Statutes
  - Regulations
  - Constitutions
  - Case Law
  - Citations
  - Search
  - RAG
  - LegalTech
  - RegTech
  - Compliance
  - GRC
  - Government Data
created: '2025-03-01'
modified: '2026-05-21'
url: >-
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/openlaws/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
specificationVersion: '0.20'
apis:
  - aid: openlaws:openlaws
    name: OpenLaws Legal Data API
    description: >-
      The OpenLaws Legal Data API exposes statutes, regulations, constitutions,
      and case law across 53 U.S. jurisdictions through a unified data model.
      It supports keyword and BM25 / hybrid search scoped by jurisdiction,
      law type, or court; hierarchical Division retrieval over the structured
      law tree; Bluebook citation parsing, validation, and lookup; historical
      versions of Divisions with diff / redline comparison (Enterprise); and
      deep linking back to authoritative government sources for use in legal
      research, compliance workflows, and AI / RAG applications.
    humanURL: https://openlaws.us/api/
    baseURL: https://api.openlaws.us
    version: '1.0.4'
    tags:
      - Legal
      - Law
      - Statutes
      - Regulations
      - Constitutions
      - Case Law
      - Search
      - Citations
      - Jurisdictions
      - Courts
    properties:
      - type: Documentation
        url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
      - type: HumanURL
        url: https://openlaws.us/api/
      - type: GettingStarted
        url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
      - type: SignUp
        url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
      - type: ChangeLog
        url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
      - type: TermsOfService
        url: https://openlaws.us/terms
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/openlaws-openapi.yml
      - type: OpenAPI
        url: openapi/openlaws-openapi.json
      - type: Plan
        url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
      - type: Rate Limit
        url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
      - type: FinOps
        url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
    features:
      - name: Jurisdiction Catalog
        description: List and inspect all 53 U.S. jurisdictions (federal, 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico) with metadata and supported law types.
      - name: Laws by Jurisdiction
        description: Discover the law types available in each jurisdiction (e.g. United States Code, Code of Federal Regulations, state statutes / regulations / constitutions).
      - name: Hierarchical Division Retrieval
        description: Walk the full structured tree of any law — titles, chapters, parts, sections — by jurisdiction, law key, and OpenLaws path.
      - name: Keyword Search (Jurisdiction)
        description: Search across all laws within a jurisdiction with keyword / BM25-style retrieval, paginated, with snippet highlighting.
      - name: Keyword Search (Law)
        description: Narrow keyword search to a specific law type within a jurisdiction (e.g. only Code of Federal Regulations).
      - name: Citation Lookup
        description: Resolve a Bluebook-formatted statute, regulation, or constitution citation directly to the underlying Division.
      - name: Case Law Search
        description: Keyword search of published and unpublished case opinions scoped by jurisdiction, with optional court filters.
      - name: Case Citation Lookup
        description: Resolve a Bluebook-formatted case citation to the matching Opinion record.
      - name: Court Directory
        description: Enumerate courts within a jurisdiction and retrieve a single court's metadata.
      - name: Historical Versions and Redlines
        description: Enterprise endpoints returning Divisions created or updated after a given date, with subtree scoping, suitable for diff / redline workflows.
      - name: Unified Data Model
        description: One consistent schema for statutes, regulations, constitutions, and case law across all 53 jurisdictions.
      - name: Authoritative Source Linking
        description: Every Division and Opinion maps back to a citable government source URL for legal defensibility.
    useCases:
      - name: GRC and IRM Integration
        description: Embed regulation text into Governance, Risk, and Compliance or Integrated Risk Management workflows and questionnaires.
      - name: Citation Validation
        description: Identify, parse, and validate malformed legal citations across documents, contracts, and databases.
      - name: Legal Research
        description: Deep-link from research products into authoritative statute, regulation, and case sources.
      - name: Regulatory Change Tracking
        description: Use the Enterprise updates endpoints to monitor new and amended Divisions across a regulator's corpus.
      - name: Generative AI and RAG
        description: Feed validated, source-attributed law text into RAG, agentic workflows, and prompt grounding for legal LLM applications.
      - name: Legal NLP and ML Training
        description: Source structured law data for training and evaluating Natural Legal Language Processing models.
      - name: LegalTech and RegTech SaaS
        description: Power compliance research tools, case-law analytics, and document processing platforms with a single law API.
      - name: AI Explainability
        description: Surface original law text alongside AI-generated answers so end users can verify and cite the underlying authority.
      - name: Access-to-Justice Tooling
        description: Custom bulk-data and non-profit programs for access-to-justice and public-interest applications.
    coverage:
      - name: Federal Jurisdiction
        description: 100% coverage of federal statutes (U.S. Code) and federal regulations (Code of Federal Regulations), plus federal case opinions.
      - name: 50 U.S. States
        description: Statutes, regulations, and case law across all 50 states.
      - name: District of Columbia
        description: Statutes, regulations, and case law for D.C.
      - name: Puerto Rico
        description: Statutes, regulations, and case law for Puerto Rico.
      - name: Volume
        description: 4,332,953+ Sections of law tracked under a unified data model.
    integrations:
      - name: Authoritative U.S. Government Law Sources
      - name: Bluebook Citation Format
      - name: RAG Pipelines
      - name: GRC / IRM Platforms
    authentication:
      - type: Bearer Token
        description: HTTP Bearer authentication using an API token issued by OpenLaws.
common:
  - type: Website
    url: https://openlaws.us/
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/openlaws-legal-data-api
  - type: SignUp
    url: https://1be187uhimk.typeform.com/to/PwYQaCu4
  - type: ChangeLog
    url: https://openlaws.apidocumentation.com/guide/release-notes
  - type: TermsOfService
    url: https://openlaws.us/terms
  - type: ContactEmail
    url: mailto:team@openlaws.us
  - type: Plan
    url: plans/openlaws-plans-pricing.yml
  - type: Rate Limit
    url: rate-limits/openlaws-rate-limits.yml
  - type: FinOps
    url: finops/openlaws-finops.yml
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com