mcp-echr

Model Context Protocol server for European Court of Human Rights case law: paragraph-level search over the ~20,000 judgments of HUDOC Researcher, with each paragraph's case name, application number, date and § number, plus the citation graph between judgments.

It is a thin wrapper over the live HUDOC Researcher API: BM25F ranking, section weighting and filters all stay in the API, so an assistant and the website always return the same results. Every result is the verbatim text of the judgment, so answers stay citable to the paragraph.

Tools

Tool	Purpose
echr_search	Paragraph-level full-text search (phrase queries, article/State/section/date filters, by-case or by-paragraph grouping)
echr_get_case	Full metadata record for one case (conclusion, violations, keywords, citation counts)
echr_get_paragraphs	Verbatim judgment text, filterable by section or § range
echr_cited_by	Later cases citing this one (forward citation graph)
echr_cites	Authorities this case relies on (backward citation graph)
echr_facets	Valid filter values with counts (articles, States, sections, …)
echr_stats	Corpus size and coverage

Every result carries a Strasbourg-style citation (case name, application number, § number, date) and the case_id needed to chain into the next tool.

Hosted connector (nothing to install)

https://150.254.115.204/echr-api/mcp — Streamable HTTP, no token.

• Claude (claude.ai / Desktop): Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → paste the address.
• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http echr https://150.254.115.204/echr-api/mcp -s user
• Any other MCP client that supports remote (HTTP) servers: the same address.

The local install below is for running the server yourself.

Skill: ECtHR research

skills/echr-research teaches Claude how to use these tools well: find the case-law on an issue, identify the leading case, quote paragraphs verbatim with OSCOLA pinpoints, and check the ECtHR citations in a draft.

• claude.ai / Desktop: download skills/echr-research.zip, then Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill.
• Claude Code: copy the skills/echr-research folder into ~/.claude/skills/.

The skill needs the connector above.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 18
• Network access to the HUDOC Researcher API

Install

git clone https://github.com/lszoszk/mcp-echr.git
cd mcp-echr
npm install

Wire into Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "echr": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/mcp-echr/src/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ with the directory where you cloned this repo (the output of pwd from inside it), then restart Claude Desktop; the seven tools appear under the connectors menu.

Claude Code

claude mcp add echr -s user -- node /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/mcp-echr/src/index.js

Use -s user for all your projects, or -s local for the current one.

Other clients

Any MCP client that can launch a stdio server works: the command is node /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/mcp-echr/src/index.js.

Config (env)

Variable	Default	Meaning
ECHR_API_BASE	https://150.254.115.204/echr-api/api	HUDOC Researcher API root
ECHR_API_KEY	(none)	Sent as X-API-Key if set
ECHR_INSECURE_TLS	0	1 accepts an untrusted certificate (only for a self-hosted API behind a self-signed cert); scoped to this server's own HTTPS agent
ECHR_TIMEOUT_MS	45000	Cold full-text queries can take ~15 s; warm ~1.5 s

Test

npm run smoke

Spawns the server over stdio and exercises every tool against the live API, including the error path.

Notes

• case_id is the HUDOC id (001-72346), not the application number.
• Section headings and boilerplate rows are excluded from search results by default (include_headings: true restores them) — they match keywords but carry no reasoning.
• para_idx is an internal row index and is not citable; cite the printed § number the tools display.
• language: "fr" (echr_search, echr_get_case, echr_get_paragraphs) searches and reads the authentic French texts of the ~9,300 judgments HUDOC publishes only in French; query in French.
• About 2,500 of the most-cited judgments that HUDOC publishes only in French are available in an unofficial English machine translation. Search leaves them out unless translations is "include" or "only"; every record and paragraph listing of one carries an UNOFFICIAL MACHINE TRANSLATION line naming the French original.
• HUDOC (https://hudoc.echr.coe.int) is the authoritative source of every judgment: check a passage there before relying on it. This is an independent research tool, not affiliated with the Court, and not legal advice.

Licence

Code: PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 — research, education, non-profit and personal use are permitted; commercial use needs a separate licence. The judgments and metadata the server returns are © Council of Europe / European Court of Human Rights and are reused under the Court's terms for HUDOC content; the HUDOC Researcher curated dataset is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Authors: Łukasz Szoszkiewicz and Sebastian Marcisz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. Contact: [email protected]