European Databases | Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland

The Federal Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in Switzerland. It judicates cases from almost all areas of Swiss law. The court's website provides a database of its decisions.

• As the court of last resort, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court reviews decisions, inter alia, of the last cantonal instances, the Federal Criminal Court, the Federal Administrative Court and the Federal Patent Court.
• The Court was established in 1848 by the Federal Constitution of September 12, 1848, which transformed the previous confederation into a federal state.
• In total there are 38 federal judges: currently 14 women and 24 men. Their native language is either Italian, French or German.
• The Federal Supreme Court is divided into seven chambers: two civil law divisions, two public law divisions, one criminal law division and two social law divisions. The seat of the Federal Supreme Court is in Lausanne; the two social law divisions are seated in Lucerne.
• The average duration of proceedings is between four and five months. There is no requirement to be represented by a lawyer.
• As precedents, the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court serve as a guide for lower courts and for the authorities applying the law.

• The official database of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court can be accessed via the court's website.
• You can find all judgements of the court since 2007, a large part of the judgements from 2000 onwards, the court's leading decisions published in the official collection of the Federal Supreme Court from 1954 onwards, as well as the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights.
• The database is regularly updated and features a list with the latest published decisions.

• The judgments of the Federal Supreme Court are drawn up in only one language, usually that of the cantonal proceedings. Only the transcripts of the leading decisions are available in German, French and Italian.
• The decisions themselves are shown on the website. The database does not provide a link to a PDF-file or another format for download.