Citations API

GET/api/links

Extract Dutch law references from free text and find related cases. Parses the input for article and law references (e.g., "artikel 6 EVRM"), resolves BWB identifiers, and returns matching cases for each reference.

Parameters

Field	Type	Notes
`q`	string	Required. Query param. Text to parse for legal references.

Response fields (per reference)

Field	Description
`type`	Reference type (e.g., `"LAW"`).
`number`	Article or section number.
`bwb_id`	BWB (Basiswettenbestand) identifier.
`bwb_label_id`	BWB label identifier.
`title`	Law title.
`cases`	Array of `[ecli, source]` pairs for related cases.

Examples

Request

GET /api/links?q=artikel%206%20evrm

Response

[
  {
    "type": "LAW",
    "number": "6",
    "bwb_id": "BWBV0001000",
    "bwb_label_id": "6",
    "title": "Europees Verdrag voor de Rechten van de Mens",
    "cases": [
      ["ECLI:NL:HR:2020:...", "RS"],
      ["ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2019:...", "RS"]
    ]
  }
]

GET/api/links/cases

Return all cases linked to a specific law reference, identified by BWB ID and label ID. Use the values from `/api/links` or `/api/links/laws` responses.

Parameters

Field	Type	Notes
`b`	string	Required. BWB identifier (e.g., from `/api/links` response).
`bl`	string	Required. BWB label identifier.

Returns an array of [ecli, source] tuples, where source indicates the dataset the case belongs to.

Examples

Request

GET /api/links/cases?b=BWBV0001000&bl=6

Response

[
  ["ECLI:NL:HR:2020:1234", "RS"],
  ["ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2019:5678", "RS"],
  ["ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2021:9012", "RS"]
]

GET POST/api/links/laws

Extract law references from text and return the count of related cases for each. More efficient than `/api/links` when you only need case counts. Supports both GET query parameters and POST JSON body.

Parameters

Field	Type	Notes
`q`	string	Required. Text to parse. GET: query param. POST: JSON body field.

Response fields (per law)

Field	Description
`bwb_id`	BWB identifier.
`bwb_label_id`	BWB label identifier.
`title`	Law title.
`amount_related_cases`	Number of related cases in the database.

Examples

GET

GET /api/links/laws?q=artikel%206%20evrm

POST

{ "q": "artikel 6 evrm" }

Response

[
  {
    "bwb_id": "BWBV0001000",
    "bwb_label_id": "6",
    "title": "Europees Verdrag voor de Rechten van de Mens",
    "amount_related_cases": 42
  }
]