legifrance.gouv.fr APIlegifrance.gouv.fr ↗
Search and retrieve French Journal Officiel texts, laws, decrees, unclaimed estate notices, and JORF issue tables of contents via the Légifrance API.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/69909e5f-96c4-4df2-8ce7-2e913b4b56f3/search_jorf?page=1&query=eau&page_size=10' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search the Journal Officiel de la République Française (JORF) for legal texts and notices. Returns paginated results matching the query with total count.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Page number. |
| query | string | Search keyword or expression. |
| nature | string | Filter by nature of text (e.g. 'annonce', 'decret'). |
| page_size | integer | Number of results per page. |
| sort_value | string | Sort order. Accepted values: 'PERTINENCE', 'PUBLICATION_DATE_DESC'. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "integer current page number",
"results": "array of search result objects with title, id, source, and url",
"page_size": "integer results per page",
"total_results": "integer total number of matching results"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"page": 1,
"results": [
{
"id": "JORFTEXT000000649171",
"url": "https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000649171",
"title": "LOI n° 2006-1772 du 30 décembre 2006 sur l'eau et les milieux aquatiques (1)",
"source": "Journal officiel"
}
],
"page_size": 10,
"total_results": 74353
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the legifrance.gouv.fr API
This API exposes 5 endpoints for querying and retrieving official French legal documents published in the Journal Officiel de la République Française (JORF) via Légifrance. Use search_jorf to run keyword searches across laws, decrees, and announcements, or search_succession_notices to target unclaimed estate (succession vacante) notices specifically. Each result includes a unique JORF text identifier, title, source label, and direct URL.
Search and Filter JORF Content
The search_jorf endpoint accepts a free-text query string and optional filters including nature (e.g. annonce, decret) and sort_value (PERTINENCE or PUBLICATION_DATE_DESC). Results are paginated via page and page_size parameters. Each result object in the results array contains a title, id, source, and url. The total_results field lets you calculate how many pages exist before fetching them.
Retrieve Full Text and Issue Contents
Once you have a JORF text identifier from search results, pass it to get_jorf_text to retrieve the complete document. The response includes a metadata object with fields for NOR, ELI, jorf_number, and publication_date, plus a full_text string and a content_sections array breaking the document into titled sections. To browse by publication date instead, get_jorf_issue accepts a specific year, month, day, and issue number, returning a sections array where each section lists its constituent text items with title and id.
Latest Issues and Succession Notices
list_latest_jorf_issues takes no parameters and returns an issues array with date, number, and title for the most recently published JORF issues — useful for polling new publications. search_succession_notices is a focused variant of the JORF search that returns paginated results for unclaimed estate and inheritance-related notices, navigable by page, and returns the same result shape (title, id, source, url) alongside pagination metadata.
- Monitor newly published laws and decrees by polling
list_latest_jorf_issuesand fetching issue contents by date and number. - Build a succession research tool that queries
search_succession_noticesand surfaces unclaimed estate notices to legal professionals. - Extract structured metadata (NOR, ELI, publication_date) from specific JORF texts using
get_jorf_textfor legal citation databases. - Index the full text of French regulations by iterating search results from
search_jorffiltered bynature(e.g.decret). - Track announcements relevant to a company or individual by querying
search_jorfwith entity name keywords sorted byPUBLICATION_DATE_DESC. - Populate a legal research dashboard with the table of contents of any JORF issue using
get_jorf_issueand its returnedsectionsarray.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does Légifrance have an official developer API?+
What does `get_jorf_text` return beyond the text body?+
metadata object containing NOR (the normalized reference number), ELI (European Legislation Identifier), jorf_number, and publication_date when those fields are present in the source document. The response also includes a content_sections array that splits the document into individually titled sections, which is useful for parsing articles or annexes separately from the main body.Can I filter `search_succession_notices` by department, date range, or deceased name?+
page parameter for pagination; finer filters like department, date range, or name are not exposed. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add those filtering parameters if your use case requires them.Does the API cover legal texts outside the JORF, such as the Code civil or consolidated legislation?+
How far back does JORF coverage go in search results?+
search_jorf endpoint returns results across the full JORF archive available on Légifrance, which includes historical texts spanning several decades. Freshness for recently published documents depends on when Légifrance indexes them; same-day publication availability is not guaranteed.