ECOLEX: environmental law from three UN-linked bodies, in one search box

ECOLEX is a free global gateway to environmental law, run jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the IUCN and the UN Environment Programme since 2001. It merges the holdings of three libraries into one portal covering treaties, decisions of treaty meetings, national legislation, court decisions and literature, with full texts where copyright allows. A 2022 presentation put the total at more than 220,000 documents. You can filter by country, subject (air, forests, fisheries, energy and so on) and date, and the interface works in English, French and Spanish. It is a good first stop when you need to know whether a country has a law on something and which treaty it implements.

Citation: 'ECOLEX: the gateway to environmental law' (FAO, IUCN and UNEP) https://www.ecolex.org/ accessed 18 October 2026.