Foreign Law: G, H

Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Honduras
Hong Kong (see China)
Hungary

Georgia

Constitution

• Constitution (Parliament): Available in English, Georgian and Russian.
• Constitution (in Georgian). (Supreme Court).

Laws and Legislation

• Adopted Laws (Parliament): Selected laws from 1990 in English and Georgian.
• Laws and Codes This site contains a wealth of codes and laws. (in English and Georgian) (Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector).
• Laws (LexInfoSys from University of Bremen).
• Legal Acts (Techinformi): This company was awarded the right to translate official publications.  This website does not provide any translated legal acts except an investment law, but it does provide contact information and a list of acts translated.
• Laws of Georgia (International Foundation for Election Systems).

Codes

• Civil Code (Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector).
• Code of Ethics for the Georgian Stock Exchange (Georgian Stock Exchange).
• Criminal Code (International Foundation for Election Systems).
• Election Code (International Foundation for Election Systems).
• General Administrative Code of Georgia (International Foundation for Election Systems).
• Judicial Ethics Code (Supreme Court of Georgia).
• Tax Code (Georgia Development Gateway).

Jurisprudence

• Supreme Court of Georgia

Laws by Subject

• Draft Tax and Business Laws (March 2004 draft) (American Chamber of Commerce in Georgia).
• The Law of Georgia on General Procedures for Granting Business Licenses and Permits (Institutional Reform and Informal Sector).
• Georgian Stock Exchange Rules (Georgian Stock Exchange).

Government

• Central Election Commission of Georgia (official website).
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia (official website).
• Parliament (official website): Includes adopted laws, news and other information.
• President (official website): Includes speeches and press releases.

Other

• Country Study (Library of Congress).
• Democratization and Organizations Links (Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector).

Germany

Constitution

• Basic Law - Grundgesetz (University of Saarbrucken): In German.
• Constitutions (Universität Bern Institut für Öffentliches Recht): In English.  Also include Weimar Constitution and links to other legal materials.
• Reunification Treaties (University of Saarbrucken): In German.
• Office for Constitutional Protection - Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (official website): Includes publications and information about the office in German.

Law and Legislation

• Bundesgesetzblatt BGBl (Makrolog): Sections I and II from 1949 to present in German.  Can view by publication (heft) number or search.  You must register to obtain a user name and password.
• Reichgesetzblatt From 1922-1944. In German.
• The Bundesgesetzblatt Teil 1, recent issues only.  Instructions and legislation are in German only.  Registration is required, but there is no fee.  Registration is case sensitive and downloading can be slow.
• Bills - Gesetzgebung (Bundestag): This site allows you to determine the legislative status of a bill with full-text links to the bill versions where available in German.   You may also search for document by  number or session.  Includes documents for both Bundestag and Bundesrat.
• German Laws in English (Oxford University): The German Law Archive has provided translations of selected laws (select Statutes).
• German Laws - Deutsche Gesetztexte (Gesetzweb): Organized by subject category, this site includes the full-text of various laws.  This site opens a number of pop-up windows because it is supported by advertising.  In German.
• German Laws (dejure.org): Allows searching of various laws by subject, by citation or full-text.
• German Laws (Non-Profit Management): Texts are organized by subject.
• German Laws (Jura1): Texts are alphabetically organized.

Codes

• Penal Code (Ministry of Justice): Unofficial translation into English as of 15 August 1998.  Another version is available from Lawww.de in German.  Another English version is available from the University of Buffalo.
• Civil Code (http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/).
• Introductory Law to Civil Code - Einführungsgesetz zum Bürgerlichen Gesetzbuch (University of Freiburg): Contains Private International Law for Germany.

Laws by Subject

• Antitrust (antitrust.de): Includes statutes and articles in English.  The Act Against Restraints of Competition is also available from the Bundeskartellamt.
• Banking (Bundesaufsichtsamt fur das Kreditwesen): In English.
• Data Protection (Berliner Beauftragter für Datenschutz und Akteneinsicht).
• Health (Ministry of Health).
• Intellectual Property (Transpatent): In German.
• Labor (Ministry of Labor and Social Order): Includes laws and draft laws in German.  Also  labor laws available from commercial entity betriebsrat.com.
• Securities (Bundesaufsichtsamt für den Wertpapierhandel): In German, laws and regulations.
• Tax (Dr. Pinkernell).
• Telecommunications (Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications and Mail).

Laws of German States (Länder)

• Hessen (official website): Laws are organized by citation and subject in German.  There is also a full-text search engine.
• Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: See Subscription Databases below.
• Saarland (University of Saarbrucken): Selection of important laws in German.  Also includes information about the Saarland  Constitutional Court and about the Landtag-Parliament.
• Sachsen-Anhalt (Landtag-Parliament): Selected laws in German.  
• Sachsen (official website): Includes recent individual issues the official gazette, Sächsischen Gesetz- und Verordnungsblattes.  There is also a subscription database, see below.
• Schleswig-Holstein (State Government): Laws in German.  Select "Katalog" for access.

Jurisprudence

• Decisions of the Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht): From 1998 to present in German.  There are many other sources of decisions:
  • The Universität Bern Institut für Öffentliches Recht provides an archive of decisions of the Constitutional Court  back to 1951 which is  searchable (although the search engine is still developing).  
  • The University of Passau has decisions from  1995-1999 in a user-friendly format.  
  • The German Law Archive from the University of Oxford has a few decisions translated into English (see judgments and the relevant court). 
  • The law of the Constitutional Court is available from the University of Saarbrucken), as are  English abstracts of important Constitutional Court decisions.
• Decisions of the Federal Court (RWS Verlag): Decisions on civil law matters from 1999 to the present in German.   Select BGH-free.  The German Law Archive from the University of Oxford has a few decisions translated into English (see judgements and the relevant court).
• Federal Fiscal Court - Bundesfinanzhof (University of Saarbrucken): Includes press releases that abstract recent decisions only.
• Federal Social Court - Bundessozialgericht (University of Saarbrucken): Includes press releases that abstract recent decisions.
• Federal Administrative Court - Bundesverwaltungsgericht (University of Saarbrucken): Includes press releases that abstract recent decisions.
• Deutsche Rechtsprechung Online (Verlag Recht und Praxis): Allows searching of the decisions of almost every German court full-text, but access to decisions is restricted.  You can use this as a bibliographic tool to find citations.  Does have full-text access to important cases.  All in German.

Government

• Directory of Federal and State Institutions (Ministry of Education and Research).

Judicial Branch

• Constitutional Court - Bundesverfassungsgericht (official website): Includes press releases, decisions and information about the court in German.
• Federal Court - Bundesgerichtshof (University of Karlsruhe): Includes information about the court,  press releases, and contact information to obtain decisions with a known citation.
• Federal Administrative Court - Bundesverwaltungsgericht (official website): Includes information about the court and press releases.
• Federal Labor Court - Bundesarbeitsgericht (official website): Includes information about the court and press releases.
• Federal Employment and Social Security Court - Bundessozialgericht (official website): Includes information about the court and press releases. 

Executive Branch

• Chancellor - Bundeskanzler (official website): Includes news and speeches.
• President - Bundesprasident (official website): Includes press releases, speeches, and a description of the office in English.
• Government - Bundesregierung (official website): Links to ministry websites, information and news in English.
• Ministry of Justice  (official website): Includes draft laws.

Legislative Branch

• Parliament: Bundestag (official website):   Includes access to bills, press information, a description of the  legislative process in English, among other information.
• Parliament: Bundesrat (official website): Includes news and information.

Subscription Databases

• Juris Online (Juris GmbH): Includes federal laws and regulations, sub-federal laws and regulations, decisions of the Constitutional Court and five other highest courts to 1976, legal periodicals and Celex, as well as a number of other interesting databases. 
• Refact (Refact GmbH): Includes federal laws and regulations and decisions of various courts.
• LARIS (government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern): Includes the laws of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
• SAXOS (Sachsen): The laws of the state Sachsen.

Legal Directories

• Saarbrücken Law-Related Internet Project: Links to many German legal information sources on the Internet, including court reports. An  English page is also available.
• German Law Archive (Oxford University): Provides English translations of laws and decisions, as well as a bibliography of articles in English on German law.
• Jurweb: Links to federal laws, legislation and case law.

Journals Online

• German Law Journal (German Law Journal): Review of developments in German and European law in English.

Research Guides

• German Business and Commercial Laws: Guide to Translations into English and Select Auxiliary Sources (LLRX).
• German Business Law Research (Joachim Rudo).

Greece

Constitution

• Constitution (in english) Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
• Constitution  (in english) (Universität Bern Institut für Öffentliches Recht).
• Constitution (in english) (Center for European Constitutional Law).

Legislation

• Selected Laws (in Greek) (Gortys).

Codes

• Codes (in Greek) Contains Civil Code, Criminal Code and other codes. (Gortys)

Laws by Subject

• Business and Investment Laws and Codes (Association of Greek Institutional Investors).
• Copyright (Ministry of Culture).
• Legislation Related to inventions, designs and models, technology transfers and topographies of semiconductor products.

Government

• Greek Industrial Property Organization (official website) (in English and Greek).
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs (official website) (in English and Greek).
• Prime Minister (official website): Includes speeches and interviews, along with information about the office.
• Parliament (in English and Greek) (official website).

Subscription Databases

• Nomos (Intrasoft.com).

Other

• Introduction to the Greek Legal System (Jurist).
• Lawnet (Lawnet.gr): Includes legal news, discussion groups and other law-related information.  Includes legislation which is only available in full-text by subscription, but can be used as a bibliographic tool.  Only available in Greek.

Guatemala

Constitution

• Constitution (Georgetown University).

Laws and Legislation

• GLIN (Library of Congress): indexes laws from Guatemala from 1908 to present. No full-text available. Can also use  World Law Index which runs to 1997 (Harvard only).
• Selected Laws and Agreements (Ministry of Public Finance): A limited collection of laws from different subject areas.
• Selected Laws (Proguat): Mostly business related laws from different subject areas.

Codes

• Criminal Procedure Code (Oficina de la Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos).
• Labor Code ( ILO).

Laws by Subject

• Banking (from the Superintendent of Banks).
• Domestic Violence (UNDP).
• Elections (Georgetown)
• Human Rights (Oficina de la Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos).
• Immigration (OIM).
• Industrial Property (Ministry of Economics).
• Judicial Structure (Organismo Judicial).
• Tax (Superintendent of Tax Administration): Texts must be downloaded.

Jurisprudence

• Fallos y Sentiencias de Guatemala Relacionadas con la Proteccion de los Derechos Humanos (Oficina de la Alta Comisionada de las Naciones Unidas para los Derechos Humanos).

Government

• Gobierno de la Republica de Guatemala/ Government (official website): Informational website.
• Congresso de la Republica de Guatemala/ Congress (official website): Informational website.
• Organismo Judicial de la Republica de Guatemala/Judicial Organ (official website).
• U.S. and Country Contacts (Appendix E of the Dept. of Commerce Country Commercial Guide): Includes names and contact information for government offices related to Guatemala.

Other

• Report of the Historical Clarification Commission (Guatemala:  Memory of Silence/memoria del silencio).  This site is the home for the AAS Science and Human Rights Program.
• MINAGUA Mision de Verificacion de las Naciones Unidos en Guatemala (official website).

Honduras

Constitution

• Constitution (Georgetown University): In Spanish.
• Constitution (Hondunet): In Spanish.

Laws and Legislation

• Selected Laws (Red de Desarrollo Sostenible): Includes various laws in different subject areas.
• GLIN (Library of Congress): indexes laws from Honduras from 1975 to present. No full-text available. Can also use  World Law Index which runs to 1997 (Harvard only).

Laws by Subject

• Central Bank (New York University for the Study of Central Banks).
• Financial and Economic (Comisión Nacional de Bancos y Seguros de Honduras).
• Forestry (Red de Desarrollo Sostenible).
• Import Export (Honduran Apparel Manufacturers Association).
• Minerals (University of Texas Institute of Geophysics).
• Telecommunications (Comision Nacional de Telecomunicaciones).

Government

• Congreso Nacional de la República de Honduras (official website): Informational website.
• Government Links (Hondirectorio): Internet directory.

Other

• Honduras - A Country Study (Library of Congress).
• U.S. and Country Contacts (Appendix IX of the Department of Commerce Country Commercial Guide): Names and contact information for U.S. and Honduran government officials.

Hungary

Constitution

• Constitution (Universität Bern Institut für Öffentliches Recht): In English and German.
• Constitution (University of Richmond): In Hungarian.
• Constitution (Constitutional Court): In English.

Law and Legislation

• Kis Magyar Torvenytar (Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences): Through 1996.  Frequently requested laws in Hungarian.
• Hungarian Rules of Law in Force (Lexis) [password required]: From 1990 to present in English, Magyar and German.

Laws By Subject

• Intellectual Property (Hungarian Patent Office): In English.
• Privacy (Privacy International).
• Citizenship Law (Hungarian Embasy):  In English.

Jurisprudence

• Constitutional Court / Alkotmánybíróság  (official website): Searchable database of decisions, also list of most recent decisions all in Hungarian. Selected decisions in  German.

Government

• Prime Minister (official website) Includes links to other ministries.
• Information System of Hungarian National Assembly / Magyar Országgyülés (official website): Proposed legislation and debates (in Hungarian).

Subscription

• Magyar Kozlony (from Magyar Hivatalos Kozlonykiado Kft.): Online subscription to official journal or to CD-ROM.