Online Legal Database on Security Sector Governance

 

Objectives

Legal regulation of matters related to defence and security is an important aspect of democratic civilian- military relations.

As part of its activities aimed at collecting best practices in this field, DCAF systematically catalogues national law relating to defence and security. In order to make this data widely available - to specialists and the general public - an online database on the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) was established in 2001.

The database provides a valuable source of publicly available national legislation in the field of defence and security. It is particularly useful for law-makers, for those involved in national or comparative research or who are interested in legal regulation of various issues relating to armed forces, police, security forces, intelligence, border guards, and mechanisms of democratic civilian oversight over them.

Focus

The database provides reference information and texts of over 300 laws and regulations from some 30 countries of the Euro-Atlantic region, relating to one of the following five topics:

- Armed forces;
- Democratic control of armed forces;
- Intelligence;
- National security;
- Police and non-military security forces.

Legal acts are provided in either their original language and/or with an English translation.

Search options allow to search and sort documents according to country and the 5 topics mentioned above.

Partners

Legal documents are collected by DCAF in cooperation with national authorities of the countries concerned, in particular parliaments and ministries of defence. Support and contributions from national representatives of member-states of the DCAF Foundation Council are also instrumental in this matter. Other partners include inter-parliamentary bodies, such as the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and also Swiss diplomatic missions abroad, and individual experts.

Note: Constitutions, being the supreme law of a State, usually contain provisions that establish general legal framework governing armed and security forces. It might be useful and sometimes necessary to examine constitutional texts for better understanding of specific laws and regulations. We invite you therefore to check one of the websites containing texts of world constitutions, such as, for example, Constitution Finder by the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond or International Constitutional Law  web page by Bayerische Julius-Maximilians University in Würzburg.

Enter the Online Legal Database on Security Sector Governance.

Feedback and Further Information

DCAF invites competent national authorities to check the relevant laws of the country concerned and to indicate any amendments or additions that may be required.

Please express feedback or questions to:

Mr. Yury Korobovsky
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces
Coordinator Think Tank
Rue de Chantepoulet 11
P.O. Box 1360
CH-1211 Geneva 1, Switzerland
Phone: 00 41 22 741 77 00   Fax: 00 41 22 741 77 77
Email: y.korobovsky@dcaf.ch
Website: www.dcaf.ch

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