Pritzker Legal Research Center: Labor and Human Rights Conditions in the Dominican Republic: Foreign Law: Dominican Republic

Overview

The Dominican Republic has a civil law legal system. Countries with civil law systems have comprehensive, continuously updated written legal codes designed to address an entire area of activity, such as criminal law, civil procedure, and commerce.

Laws in the Dominican Republic are available primarily in Spanish (the national language of the country), with some occasional unofficial translations in English or French. You can download a Google Translate browser extension to assist you with navigating websites that are not in English or obtaining the gist of a document in a foreign language, but you should not rely on machine-generated translations to make legal arguments. Machine-generated translations are full of errors and do not take into account context or recognize legal terms of art.

Research Strategy

Steps for Finding Legal Materials from the Dominican Republic

Step 1: Consult secondary sources such as journal articles or news articles to familiarize yourself with the topic and the relevant law(s) and to identify relevant cases.
Step 2: Using a research guide to assist you, identify relevant resources where you can access legal materials from the Dominican Republic.
Step 3: Retrieve or search for the foreign legal materials using the suggested databases and websites mentioned in the research guides or listed below. If you are unable to find an English translation, you may need to rely on a summary of the law in a secondary source.

Research Guides

Suggested Databases & Websites

Laws from the Dominican Republic are not available on Westlaw or Lexis. Instead, retrieve laws, regulations, and judicial decisions via government websites or subject collections.

Subject collections are databases/websites that contain laws from around the world pertaining to a particular subject (e.g., NATLEX provides access to national labor, social security, and related human rights laws). Subject collections usually have English interfaces available for navigation along with useful search and filtering functions.

Government Websites

Consultoría Jurídica del Poder Ejecutivo: Consultas, Leyes, Decretos
Provides access to the Official Gazette (Gaceta Oficial), which is the official source for all statutes and laws passed by Congress as well as decrees and regulations enacted by the Executive Branch. Available in Spanish only.
Poder Judicial de la República Dominicana
Provides access to the Judicial Bulletin (Boletín Judicial de la Suprema Corte de Justicia), which is the official source of reported court opinions published by the Supreme Court of Justice. Available in Spanish only.

Subject Collections

NATLEX
Provides access to national labor, social security, and related human rights legislation. Laws are organized by country and by subject.
FAOLEX
Provides access to national policies and legislation on food, agriculture and natural resources management.
RefWorld - Nationality Laws
Provides access to national laws on nationality, citizenship, and statelessness from countries around the world.
Global Health and Human Rights Database
Provides access to judgments, international and regional instruments, and national constitutions pertaining to health and human rights.
ECOLEX
Provides access to legislation and jurisprudence pertaining to environmental law from various jurisdictions.

Additional Databases

These databases are maintained by NGOs, law firms, or other entities and are free to use.

Observatorio Judicial Dominicano (OJD)
Provides access to jurisprudence and laws from the Dominican Republic organized into seven subject areas: Constitutional, Civil and Commercial, Electoral, Property, Labor, Criminal, and Tax and Administrative Law.
Colección de Leyes (OMG)
Provides access to a collection of the Dominican Republic's main laws organized by practice area.