korean-law-mcp

Korean Law MCP

87 tools to search, retrieve, and analyze Korean law — statutes, precedents, ordinances, treaties, and more.

MCP server + CLI for Korea’s official legal database (법제처 Open API). Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, and any MCP-compatible client.

한국어

Korean Law MCP demo

What’s New in v2.2.0

23 New Tools (64 → 87) — Treaties, law-ordinance linkage, institutional rules (school/public corp/public institution), special administrative appeals, audit & inspection decisions, article detail, document analysis, admin rule comparison, and more.
Document Analysis Engine — 8 document types, 17 risk rules, amount/period extraction, clause conflict detection. Feed a contract or MOU and get structured legal risk assessment.
Law-Ordinance Linkage (4 tools) — Trace delegation chains between national laws and local ordinances in both directions. Find which ordinances implement a law, or which law a local ordinance derives from.
Treaty Support (2 tools) — Search and retrieve bilateral/multilateral treaties Korea is party to.
Institutional Rules (6 tools) — School rules, public corporation rules, and public institution rules — each with search + full text retrieval.
Special Administrative Appeals (4 tools) — Board of Audit & Inspection special appeals and appeal review decisions.
Date Filter for Precedents — fromDate/toDate parameters on precedent and interpretation search tools.
Natural Language Date Parser — CLI now understands "최근 3개월", "작년", "2024년 이후" and converts to YYYYMMDD ranges.
Security Hardening — CORS origin control, API key header-only (no query string), security headers, session ID masking.

v1.8.0 – v1.9.0 features

- **8 Chain Tools** — Composite research workflows in a single call: `chain_full_research` (AI search → statutes → precedents → interpretations), `chain_law_system`, `chain_action_basis`, `chain_dispute_prep`, `chain_amendment_track`, `chain_ordinance_compare`, `chain_procedure_detail`. - **Batch Article Retrieval** — `get_batch_articles` accepts a `laws` array for multi-law queries in one call. - **AI Search Type Filter** — `search_ai_law` now supports `lawTypes` filter. - **Structured Error Format** — `[ErrorCode] + tool name + suggestion` across all 64 tools. - **HWP Table Fix** — Legacy HWP parser now extracts tables from `paragraph.controls[].content` path.

Why this exists

South Korea has 1,600+ active laws, 10,000+ administrative rules, and a precedent system spanning Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, tax tribunals, and customs rulings. All of this lives behind a clunky government API with zero developer experience.

This project wraps that entire legal system into 87 structured tools that any AI assistant or script can call. Built by a Korean civil servant who got tired of manually searching 법제처 for the hundredth time.

Quick Start

Option 1: MCP Server (Claude Desktop / Cursor / Windsurf)

npm install -g korean-law-mcp

Add to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "korean-law": {
      "command": "korean-law-mcp",
      "env": {
        "LAW_OC": "your-api-key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your free API key at 법제처 Open API.

Client	Config File
Claude Desktop	`%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json` (Win) / `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json` (Mac)
Cursor	`.cursor/mcp.json`
Windsurf	`.windsurf/mcp.json`
Continue	`~/.continue/config.json`
Zed	`~/.config/zed/settings.json`

Option 2: Remote (No Install)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "korean-law": {
      "url": "https://korean-law-mcp.fly.dev/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Option 3: CLI

npm install -g korean-law-mcp
export LAW_OC=your-api-key

korean-law search_law --query "관세법"
korean-law get_law_text --mst 160001 --jo "제38조"
korean-law search_precedents --query "부당해고"
korean-law list                          # all 87 tools
korean-law list --category 판례          # filter by category
korean-law help search_law               # tool help

Option 4: Docker

docker build -t korean-law-mcp .
docker run -e LAW_OC=your-api-key -p 3000:3000 korean-law-mcp

Tool Categories (87 total)

Search (11)

Tool	Description
`search_law`	Search statutes (auto-resolves abbreviations)
`search_admin_rule`	Search administrative rules
`search_ordinance`	Search local ordinances
`search_precedents`	Search court precedents
`search_interpretations`	Search legal interpretations
`search_all`	Unified search across all categories
`suggest_law_names`	Law name autocomplete
`advanced_search`	Advanced search with date/keyword filters
`get_law_history`	Law amendment history by date
`get_annexes`	Retrieve annexes + extract HWPX/HWP to Markdown
`parse_jo_code`	Article number ↔ JO code conversion

Retrieve (9)

Tool	Description
`get_law_text`	Full statute text
`get_admin_rule`	Full administrative rule
`get_ordinance`	Full local ordinance
`get_precedent_text`	Full precedent text
`get_interpretation_text`	Full interpretation text
`get_batch_articles`	Batch article retrieval (multiple laws)
`get_article_with_precedents`	Article + related precedents
`compare_old_new`	Old vs. new law comparison
`get_three_tier`	Law → Decree → Rule 3-tier comparison

Analyze (10)

Tool	Description
`compare_articles`	Cross-law article comparison
`get_law_tree`	Delegation structure tree
`get_article_history`	Article amendment history
`summarize_precedent`	Precedent summary
`extract_precedent_keywords`	Precedent keyword extraction
`find_similar_precedents`	Similar precedent search
`get_law_statistics`	Law statistics
`parse_article_links`	Parse in-text legal references
`get_external_links`	Generate external links
`analyze_document`	Document analysis with legal context

Specialized: Tax & Customs (4)

Tool	Description
`search_tax_tribunal_decisions`	Tax tribunal decision search
`get_tax_tribunal_decision_text`	Tax tribunal decision full text
`search_customs_interpretations`	Customs interpretation search
`get_customs_interpretation_text`	Customs interpretation full text

Specialized: Constitutional & Admin Appeals (4)

Tool	Description
`search_constitutional_decisions`	Constitutional Court decision search
`get_constitutional_decision_text`	Constitutional Court decision full text
`search_admin_appeals`	Administrative appeal decision search
`get_admin_appeal_text`	Administrative appeal decision full text

Specialized: Committee Decisions (8)

Tool	Description
`search_ftc_decisions`	Fair Trade Commission decision search
`get_ftc_decision_text`	Fair Trade Commission decision full text
`search_pipc_decisions`	Privacy Commission decision search
`get_pipc_decision_text`	Privacy Commission decision full text
`search_nlrc_decisions`	Labor Relations Commission decision search
`get_nlrc_decision_text`	Labor Relations Commission decision full text
`search_acr_decisions`	Board of Audit & Inspection decision search
`get_acr_decision_text`	Board of Audit & Inspection decision full text

Special Admin Appeals (4)

Tool	Description
`search_acr_special_appeals`	Special administrative appeal search
`get_acr_special_appeal_text`	Special administrative appeal full text
`search_appeal_review_decisions`	Appeal review decision search
`get_appeal_review_decision_text`	Appeal review decision full text

Law-Ordinance Linkage (4)

Tool	Description
`get_linked_ordinances`	Find ordinances linked to a law
`get_linked_ordinance_articles`	Get linked ordinance article details
`get_delegated_laws`	Find laws delegating to ordinances
`get_linked_laws_from_ordinance`	Find parent laws from an ordinance

Treaties (2)

Tool	Description
`search_treaties`	Treaty search
`get_treaty_text`	Treaty full text

Institutional Rules (6)

Tool	Description
`search_school_rules`	School rule search
`get_school_rule_text`	School rule full text
`search_public_corp_rules`	Public corporation rule search
`get_public_corp_rule_text`	Public corporation rule full text
`search_public_institution_rules`	Public institution rule search
`get_public_institution_rule_text`	Public institution rule full text

Knowledge Base (7)

Tool	Description
`get_legal_term_kb`	Legal terminology search
`get_legal_term_detail`	Term definition
`get_daily_term`	Everyday language search
`get_daily_to_legal`	Everyday → legal term mapping
`get_legal_to_daily`	Legal → everyday term mapping
`get_term_articles`	Articles using a term
`get_related_laws`	Related laws

Chain Tools (8)

Composite research workflows — multiple tools in a single call.

Tool	Workflow
`chain_law_system`	Search → 3-tier comparison → batch articles
`chain_action_basis`	Law system → interpretations → precedents → appeals
`chain_dispute_prep`	Precedents + appeals + specialized decisions
`chain_amendment_track`	Old/new comparison + article history
`chain_ordinance_compare`	Parent law → nationwide ordinance search
`chain_full_research`	AI search → statutes → precedents → interpretations
`chain_procedure_detail`	Law system → annexes → enforcement rule annexes
`chain_document_review`	Document analysis → related laws → precedents

Other (10)

Tool	Description
`search_ai_law`	Natural language AI search
`search_english_law`	English law search
`get_english_law_text`	English law full text
`search_historical_law`	Historical law search
`get_historical_law`	Historical law full text
`search_legal_terms`	Legal dictionary search
`get_law_system_tree`	Law system tree visualization
`get_law_abbreviations`	Law abbreviation list
`get_article_detail`	Single article detail retrieval
`compare_admin_rule_old_new`	Admin rule old vs. new comparison

Usage Examples

User: "관세법 제38조 알려줘"
→ search_law("관세법") → get_law_text(mst, jo="003800")

User: "화관법 최근 개정 비교"
→ "화관법" → "화학물질관리법" auto-resolved → compare_old_new(mst)

User: "근로기준법 제74조 해석례"
→ search_interpretations("근로기준법 제74조") → get_interpretation_text(id)

User: "산업안전보건법 별표1 내용"
→ get_annexes("산업안전보건법 별표1") → HWPX download → Markdown table

Features

87 Legal Tools — Statutes, precedents, admin rules, ordinances, constitutional decisions, tax rulings, customs interpretations, treaties, institutional rules, legal terminology
MCP + CLI — Use from Claude Desktop or from your terminal. Same 87 tools.
Korean Law Intelligence — Auto-resolves abbreviations (화관법 → 화학물질관리법), converts article numbers (제38조 ↔ 003800), visualizes 3-tier delegation
Annex Extraction — Downloads HWPX/HWP annexes and converts tables to Markdown automatically
8 Chain Tools — Composite research workflows in a single call (e.g. chain_full_research: AI search → statutes → precedents → interpretations)
Caching — 1-hour search cache, 24-hour article cache
Remote Endpoint — Use without installation via https://korean-law-mcp.fly.dev/mcp

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
`LAW_OC`	Yes	—	법제처 API key (get one free)
`PORT`	No	3000	HTTP server port
`CORS_ORIGIN`	No	`*`	CORS allowed origin
`RATE_LIMIT_RPM`	No	60	Requests per minute per IP

Documentation

docs/API.md — 87-tool reference
docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — System design
docs/DEVELOPMENT.md — Development guide

Credits

법제처 Open API — Korea’s official legal database
Anthropic — Model Context Protocol
kordoc — HWP/HWPX parser (same author)

License

MIT

_{Made by a Korean civil servant @ 광진구청 AI동호회 AI.Do}

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