Python library for extracting case law data from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) HUDOC database.

• Extract metadata for ECHR cases from the HUDOC database
• Download full text content for cases
• Support for custom date ranges and case ID ranges
• Multiple language support
• Generate nodes and edges for network analysis
• Flexible output formats (CSV, JSON, in-memory DataFrames)

pip install echr-extractor

from echr_extractor import get_echr, get_echr_extra, get_nodes_edges

# Get basic metadata for cases
df = get_echr(start_id=0, count=100, language=['ENG'])

# Get metadata + full text
df, full_texts = get_echr_extra(start_id=0, count=100, language=['ENG'])

# Generate network data
nodes, edges = get_nodes_edges(df=df)

Gets all available metadata for ECHR cases from the HUDOC database.

Parameters:

• start_id (int, optional): The ID of the first case to download (default: 0)
• end_id (int, optional): The ID of the last case to download (default: maximum available)
• count (int, optional): Number of cases per language to download (default: None)
• start_date (str, optional): Start publication date (yyyy-mm-dd) (default: None)
• end_date (str, optional): End publication date (yyyy-mm-dd) (default: current date)
• verbose (bool, optional): Show progress information (default: False)
• fields (list, optional): Limit metadata fields to download (default: all fields)
• save_file (str, optional): Save as CSV file ('y') or return DataFrame ('n') (default: 'y')
• language (list, optional): Languages to download (default: ['ENG'])
• link (str, optional): Direct HUDOC search URL (default: None)
• query_payload (str, optional): Direct API query payload (default: None)

Gets metadata and downloads full text for each case.

Parameters: Same as get_echr plus:

• threads (int, optional): Number of threads for parallel download (default: 10)

Generates nodes and edges for network analysis from case metadata.

Parameters:

• metadata_path (str, optional): Path to metadata CSV file (default: None)
• df (DataFrame, optional): Metadata DataFrame (default: None)
• save_file (str, optional): Save as files ('y') or return objects ('n') (default: 'y')

You can use direct HUDOC search URLs:

url = "https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#{%22itemid%22:[%22001-57574%22]}"
df = get_echr(link=url)

For more robust searching, use simple field:value queries:

payload = 'article:8'
df = get_echr(query_payload=payload)

df = get_echr(
    start_date="2020-01-01",
    end_date="2023-12-31",
    language=['ENG', 'FRE']
)

fields = ['itemid', 'doctypebranch', 'title', 'kpdate']
df = get_echr(count=100, fields=fields)

• Python 3.8+
• requests
• pandas
• beautifulsoup4
• dateparser
• tqdm

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

• Benjamin Rodrigues de Miranda
• Chloe Crombach
• Piotr Lewandowski
• Pranav Bapat
• Shashank MC
• Gijs van Dijck

If you use this library in your research, please cite:

@software{echr_extractor,
  title={ECHR Extractor: Python Library for European Court of Human Rights Data},
  author={LawTech Lab, Maastricht University},
  url={https://github.com/maastrichtlawtech/echr-extractor},
  year={2024}
}

For bug reports and feature requests, please open an issue on GitHub.