Legal Docs Client

A TypeScript client library for accessing legal documents from the Case Law Explorer API.

Installation

npm install legal-docs-client

Usage

Basic Setup

import { createLegalDocsClient } from 'legal-docs-client';

const client = createLegalDocsClient({
  apiKey: process.env.CITATIONS_API_KEY
});

Fetching Documents

const documents = await client.fetchDocuments({
  query: {
        dataSources: ["RS"],
        degreesSource: 0,
        degreesTarget: 0,
        dateStart: "1900-01-01",
        dateEnd: "2026-03-10",
        docTypes: ["DEC"],
        engine: "ES",
        attributesToFetch: "ALL",
        keywords: ["armenia"],
        selectedLawsIntersect: true,
      },
});

console.log(documents);

Getting Full Text

const fullTextDocs = await client.getFullText(['ECLI:NL:HR:2005:AO9006', 'ECLI:NL:RBSGR:2012:BY5532']);

console.log(fullTextDocs);

Fetching Laws

const laws = await client.fetchLaws('Art. 7:669 BW');

console.log(laws);

Environment Configuration

This package requires an API token from the Case Law Explorer API for document requests.

Setup Instructions

1. Install dotenv (if working in Node.js):

npm install dotenv

2. Create a .env file in your project root:

CITATIONS_API_KEY=your_api_token_here

3. Load environment variables in your application:

import 'dotenv/config';
import { createLegalDocsClient } from 'legal-docs-client';

const client = createLegalDocsClient({
  apiKey: process.env.CITATIONS_API_KEY
});

Note: For Vite projects, use import.meta.env.VITE_CITATIONS_API_KEY instead and prefix your .env variable with VITE_.

Getting an API Token

New API keys can be generated at: https://api.caselawexplorer.tech/login.html?next=/account.html

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.