ley-ar — Argentine Legal Database Search

Search jurisprudence, legislation, and doctrine from 4 public Argentine legal databases.

Installation

cd {baseDir}/scripts && pip install -e . --break-system-packages -q

Requires Python 3.10+. Dependencies: typer, httpx, rich.

Databases

DB	Source	Best For	Reliability
saij	saij.gob.ar	National jurisprudence, legislation, doctrine	✅ Clean JSON API
csjn	sjconsulta.csjn.gov.ar	Supreme Court summaries	✅ HTML+JSON
juba	juba.scba.gov.ar	Buenos Aires Province decisions	⚠️ HTML scraping
juscaba	eje.juscaba.gob.ar	CABA court cases/expedientes	⚠️ Poor free-text

Default strategy: Start with --db saij,csjn. Add juba only for PBA-specific queries. Use juscaba only with case IDs.

Commands

# Search all databases (parallel)
ley search "prescripción adquisitiva"

# Filter by database(s)
ley search "daño moral" --db saij,csjn

# Limit results
ley search "phishing bancario" --db saij --limit 5

# JSON output for scripting
ley search "responsabilidad civil" --db csjn --json

# Plain text
ley search "contrato de locación" --text

# Status check
ley status
ley --version

Search Tips

• Use legal terminology: "daños y perjuicios" not "accidente de auto"
• Be specific: "prescripción adquisitiva inmueble" > "prescripción"
• "Patentes" ambiguity: returns IP patents, not vehicle tax. Use "impuesto automotor" or "radicación automotor" instead.
• For current tax rates or alícuotas, use web search — these databases index case law, not regulatory info.

Output

Each result: db, id, title, date, snippet, url. Default: Rich table. --json for structured data.

Limitations

• JUBA depends on ASP.NET WebForms scraping — breaks if site changes
• CSJN full case text may need reCAPTCHA (summaries work)
• JUSCABA works best with case identifiers, not free-text
• No auth required — all public APIs
• Respect rate limits: avoid rapid-fire queries