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Central Library

The Central Library makes its specialized collection of Swiss and Geneva law freely available to the public (lawyers, legal professionals, students and anyone in need of legal documentation). The library is a consultation library (no loans) and offers 10 workstations, a paying photocopier and free wifi access. The library is a member of the Swiss Library Service Platform.

Contacts

Address

Address

Place du Bourg-de-Four 1
1204 Genève

Contact details

Opening hours

Monday: 13h30-17h
Tuesday to Thursday: 8h30-12h / 13h30-17h
Friday: 8h30-12h

Mailing address

Bibliothèque centrale du Pouvoir judiciaire
Place du Bourg-de-Four 1
1204 Genève

Head of the Department

Mr. Stéphane GIVKOVIC

Terms of access

The library is open to all members of the public, subject to compliance with the terms of access to the courthouse and copyright legislation.

  • Free access to the collection
  • On-site consultation, no loans for the external public
  • Paid photocopies (photocopy cards available at the reception desk)
  • 10 workplaces with electrical outlets and free wifi
  • 2 PCs available for your research in the catalogue

Consult the library’s rules of use.

Services

Are you looking for legal documentation?

Our swisscovery catalogue allows you to browse through some 10'000 books and 450 periodical titles, and to access the collections of more than 470 academic and scientific libraries throughout Switzerland.

Consult our catalogue

  • As the Central Library of the Judiciary Power is a reference library, registration with the Swiss Library Service Platform is not necessary to use its resources. However, in order to use the services of the other libraries in the same network, you must be registered (free of charge), according to the following procedure: How to create your account in Swiss Library Service Platform.
  • Consult the library’s plan to locate books on the shelves.
     
  • Each document is classified according to the francophone legal classification, detailed in the classification plan of the collection.
     
  • All services can be found in our user guide.

The memorial of the cantonal Parliament sessions of the Republic and canton of Geneva, in its entirety (1829 ->)

LexFind: search in all the legislation of the cantons and the Confederation. Access to old versions of laws.
 

The case-law reports (complete collections):

List of all available journals.

Electronic resources available on site

  • More than 70 E-Books
  • Capitalisator software (accompanies the Stauffer, Schaetzle, Weber capitalization tables and programs, and permanently replaces manual calculation using these tables)
  • Various other library catalogs

Themes

The service occasionally produces thematic bibliographies, in connection with current events or events taking place within the central library or the Judicial power.

Questions/answers

No, the case law of the Judiciary Power is not available at the Library. You have to contact directly the desk of the relevant instance. Part of the case law is also published on the website of the Judiciary Power.

No, the Library does not provide legal advice. You must contact a professional (e.g., a lawyer) or a legal advice service.

See Legal advice service and legal counsels’ page

 

See also

Direction des opérations logistiques, immobilières et financières

The mission of the Direction is to provide an appropriate and efficient solution to the needs of the instances and directorates of the Judiciary Power in the areas of logistical and real estate operations, safety and security, financial services, as well as the management of large-scale real estate projects and, consequently, relations with the Office Cantonal des Bâtiments.

Case law

The term "Geneva case law" refers to all decisions rendered by the Geneva judicial authorities.