Foreign Law Guide

FOREIGN LAW GUIDE

Foreign Law by Country

The jurisdictions below are grouped by legal tradition, because a comparative question usually starts there. Treat each heading as a rough sort, not an answer. Once a researcher actually needs to open a gazette, check whether a code has been amended, or work out which of two published texts a court would rely on, the tradition stops mattering and that country's own publishing arrangements take over completely.

Each grouping here is read directly off a fact already recorded for that country, sourced to its own code, constitution, or a comparable primary text, rather than assigned from a general rule about what a tradition usually implies. A jurisdiction that genuinely resists being filed under one heading is meant to say so in its own record rather than being placed there for the sake of a complete looking list. A heading with nothing under it does not appear at all, and a group that looks thin is showing a real distribution rather than a gap in the work.

Italy and France are both filed under the civil law heading, and both records say so plainly, and the two states still disagree about something as basic as which copy of a statute wins. Italy resolves a conflict between its printed gazette and its electronic one by trusting the paper. France retired paper for its own gazette and treats the authenticated electronic file as the only version there is. Sharing a tradition predicted neither rule, and a researcher who assumed the two would behave alike on this point would have guessed wrong twice. Naming those two here is deliberate rather than a count of what happens to be below: this list grows with every researched country, and a sentence that said "the two countries below" would quietly become false the moment a third arrived.

That is also why the line under each name below states a gazette rather than repeating the heading above it. A tradition says almost nothing about who actually publishes a country's law or how current that publisher keeps it. A gazette name is a fact a researcher can act on immediately, before the linked page even explains what it contains. Where a line names a gazette, that name is read off a fact with a document behind it, and the documents are listed at the foot of this page, so the line can be checked here rather than only on the page it links to. Where a line says instead that no gazette has been established, that is the honest state of the research and it says what would settle it.

Every entry below links to a page built the same way: a fact block stating the legal family, the gazette, the constitution in force and the language of the authoritative text, each traced to a source or written as unsettled where no source could settle it, followed by enough prose to explain how that country's publishing arrangement actually works rather than merely naming it. Nothing below is a placeholder written to fill a row, and a group that has not yet earned a country stays off this page rather than being padded with one. A country appears here only once its record has been researched and checked against a primary source it actually cites, and each one carries its own review date on its own page, which is the date the facts there were last put against the documents behind them.

CIVIL LAW

  • Argentina Official gazette: Boletin Oficial de la Republica Argentina.
  • Austria Official gazette: Bundesgesetzblatt für die Republik Österreich, issued by the Federal Chancellor within the Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes and held for retrieval at www.ris.bka.gv.at.
  • Brazil Official gazette: Diario Oficial da Uniao.
  • France Official gazette: Journal officiel de la République française.
  • Germany Official gazette: Bundesgesetzblatt.
  • Italy Official gazette: Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana.
  • Japan Official gazette: Kanpo, the Official Gazette.
  • Madagascar Official gazette: Journal Officiel de la Republique de Madagascar.
  • Mexico Official gazette: Diario Oficial de la Federacion.
  • Netherlands Official gazette: Staatsblad van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden for Acts and general administrative measures, and the Staatscourant for official announcements, both published electronically at officielebekendmakingen.nl since 1 July 2009.
  • Poland Official gazette: Dziennik Ustaw for statutes and the Monitor Polski for other instruments, both issued electronically, with the day of announcement defined as the day of electronic announcement on the issuing organ's website.
  • Romania Official gazette: Monitorul Oficial al Romaniei, produced by the Regia Autonoma Monitorul Oficial under Legea nr. 202/1998 and Hotararea nr. 844/2018, with publication, republication and rectification governed by Ordin nr. 367/2022.
  • South Korea Official gazette: Gwanbo, the Official Gazette.
  • Spain Official gazette: Boletín Oficial del Estado.
  • Switzerland Official gazette: Amtliche Sammlung des Bundesrechts and the Bundesblatt, published by the Federal Chancellery on the Fedlex platform.

COMMON LAW

  • India Official gazette: The Gazette of India, published by the Department of Publication under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, whose Controller of Publication is the authorised publisher, custodian and distributor of Government of India publications.

MIXED AND PLURAL SYSTEMS

  • Pakistan Official gazette: The Gazette notification is the original source of a federal law.
  • Tuvalu Official gazette not yet established from a source. Any issue of the Tuvalu Government Gazette, or a statement from the office that issues it. The government legislation site has a Gazettes section with a year selector running from 2026 back to 1930, and its default view returns the line that no records exist.

CONTESTED OR UNCLASSIFIED

  • China Official gazette: No single gazette of record.
  • Libya Official gazette: al-Jarida al-Rasmiyya, the Official Gazette.

SOURCES

  1. Decreto 207/2016, on the official character of the Boletin Oficial website. Ministerio de Justicia de la Nacion, Argentina.gob.ar. https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/norma-257958/texto. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  2. Bundesgesetz über das Bundesgesetzblatt 2004 (Bundesgesetzblattgesetz), consolidated text as at 30 August 2026. Bundeskanzleramt der Republik Österreich, Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes. https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20002988&FassungVom=2026-08-30. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  3. Decreto no 9.215, de 29 de novembro de 2017, on the publication of the Diario Oficial da Uniao. Presidencia da Republica, Secretaria-Geral, Subchefia para Assuntos Juridicos. https://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2015-2018/2017/decreto/d9215.htm. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  4. Legislation Law of the People's Republic of China, text as amended on 13 March 2023. Zhongguo Zhengfu Wang, the State Council portal of the People's Republic of China. https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2023-03/14/content_5746569.htm. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  5. Diffusion légale, statement of mission. Direction de l'information légale et administrative. https://www.dila.gouv.fr/institution/missions/article/diffusion-legale. Accessed 2026-08-29.
  6. Unsere Leistungen, services of the Verkündungsplattform des Bundes. Bundesministerium der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz. https://www.recht.bund.de/de/informationen/leistungen/leistungen_node.html. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  7. Introduction, Department of Publication. Department of Publication, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India. https://deptpub.gov.in/about-department/introduction/. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  8. Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana, home page and archive index. Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato S.p.A.. https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/. Accessed 2026-08-29.
  9. Kanpo ni tsuite, the National Printing Bureau's account of the Official Gazette. Kokuritsu Insatsukyoku, the National Printing Bureau of Japan. https://www.npb.go.jp/product_service/books/kanpo/index.html. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  10. الجريدة الرسمية, the Official Gazette, first year. House of Representatives, State of Libya. https://parliament.ly/الجريدة-الرسمية/. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  11. CNLEGIS, page d'accueil. DIRCNLEGIS, Secrétariat Général du Gouvernement, Primature. https://cnlegis.gov.mg/. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  12. Decreto reforming the Ley del Diario Oficial de la Federacion y Gacetas Gubernamentales, DOF 31 May 2019. Diario Oficial de la Federacion, Secretaria de Gobernacion. https://dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle.php?codigo=5561613&fecha=31/05/2019. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  13. Staatscourant, the Senate glossary entry. Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal. https://www.eerstekamer.nl/begrip/staatscourant. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  14. The Pakistan Code, home page. Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of Pakistan. https://pakistancode.gov.pk/english/index.php. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  15. Ustawa o ogloszaniu aktow normatywnych i niektorych innych aktow prawnych, consolidated text of 19 July 2019. Kancelaria Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, ELI service. https://api.sejm.gov.pl/eli/acts/DU/2019/1461/text.html. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  16. Legislație privind organizarea și functionarea instituției. Regia Autonomă Monitorul Oficial. https://monitoruloficial.ro/legislatie-privind-organizarea-si-functionarea-institutiei/. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  17. Balhaeng geungeo, the statutory basis of the Gwanbo. Haengjeong Anjeon Bu, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety of the Republic of Korea. https://www.gwanbo.go.kr/user/ofcttIntrcn/basis.do. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  18. Real Decreto 181/2008, de 8 de febrero, de ordenación del diario oficial Boletín Oficial del Estado, consolidated text. Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado. https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2008-2389. Accessed 2026-08-30.
  19. Loi sur les publications officielles, RS 170.512, text as at 1 July 2022. Chancellerie federale suisse, Fedlex. https://fedlex.data.admin.ch/filestore/fedlex.data.admin.ch/eli/cc/2004/745/20220701/fr/html/fedlex-data-admin-ch-eli-cc-2004-745-20220701-fr-html.html. Accessed 2026-08-30.

Reviewed 2026-08-31. 19 sources cited on this page.