Getting started

Install

pnpm

pnpm add be-legal-data

npm

npm install be-legal-data

yarn

yarn add be-legal-data

The package is ESM, ships its own type definitions, has no runtime dependencies, and runs in browsers and on Node 22.12 or later, where require() loads it too. It's tested on Node 22.12, 22, 24 and 26.

Import only what you need

The data is bundled into the JavaScript, so importing from the package root loads every dataset (about 250 KB, mostly the legal text of the cantons). Each dataset has its own entry point:

import { getInterestRate } from 'be-legal-data/interest-rates' // 12 KB
import { getCourt } from 'be-legal-data/courts' // 32 KB
import { getCanton } from 'be-legal-data/territory'

A first look

import {
    getCourt,
    formatCourtName,
    findCourts,
    getCanton,
    getCantonsForMunicipality,
    getInterestRate,
} from 'be-legal-data'

formatCourtName(getCourt('justice-of-the-peace-gent-1')) // 'Vredegerecht 1e kanton Gent'
findCourts({ type: 'enterprise-court', arrondissement: 'west-vlaanderen' })

getCantonsForMunicipality('44088') // [Canton merelbeke-melle]
getCantonsForMunicipality('44021') // Gent 1–5: split city, see each canton's `territory`
getCanton('oudergem').seat.nl // 'Etterbeek'

getInterestRate('2024-06-15', 'legal') // { rate: 5.75, period: { from: '2024-01-01', to: '2024-12-31' } }
getInterestRate(new Date(2014, 5, 15), 'commercial', { contractAfter20130316: true }) // { rate: 8.5, … }

Common tasks

Which justice of the peace handles an address?

Look up the municipality's REFNIS code and get its cantons, then the canton's court.

import { getCantonsForMunicipality, getJusticeOfThePeace } from 'be-legal-data'

const cantons = getCantonsForMunicipality('44088')
if (cantons.length === 1) {
    const court = getJusticeOfThePeace(cantons[0].id) // undefined outside East and West Flanders, for now
}

When a city is split over several cantons (Antwerpen, Gent, Brussel, Luik, …), you get more than one result. The street address decides, and each canton's territory holds the legal description of its part. Try it on the territory page.

Interest due on a day

import { getInterestRate, getLatestKnownRateDate } from 'be-legal-data'

const result = getInterestRate(new Date(), 'commercial')
if (!result) {
    console.warn(`No rate on file; latest known day is ${getLatestKnownRateDate('commercial')}`)
}

getInterestRate returns null for a day with no rate on file, so you can warn instead of silently using 0 %. It throws a RangeError for a malformed day such as '2024-6-1': pass YYYY-MM-DD or a Date.

Court names in another language

formatCourtName(getCourt('justice-of-the-peace-gent-1'), 'fr') // 'Tribunal de paix 1e canton Gand'
formatCourtName(getCourt('enterprise-court-gent-brugge')) // 'Ondernemingsrechtbank Gent - afdeling Brugge'

Raw JSON

The data files are exported too:

import courts from 'be-legal-data/data/courts.json' with { type: 'json' }

Ids are public API

Projects store ids such as justice-of-the-peace-gent-1 or oost-vlaanderen, so they never change within a major version (see identifiers), and versions follow these rules:

Change	Version
Adding data	minor
Fixing a value	patch
Removing or renaming an id	major