The material below was prepared by Maria M. Otero, Head of the Reference Dept. University of Puerto Rico Law Library for the program entitled The Challenge of Puerto Rico Legal Research: What's Available & How Do You Find It presented at the SEAALL Annual Meeting/Caribe Hilton Hotel, San Juan, P.R. March 30-April 1, 2000
Primary sources from Puerto Rico are published in Spanish, the official translations into English takes longer to be available either published or from the government agency. Generally, copies of the statutes, opinions, regulations and other government documents are free to U.S. government agencies upon a written request to the particular agency.
How to obtain unpublished Puerto Rico statutes, regulations and court decisions officially translated into English
Statutes
The Laws of Puerto Rico Annotated (English version) is outdated, the last supplement published is dated 1996. To obtain copies of the latest statutes translated into English, a request should be sent to the Department of State:
Departamento de Estado
Venta de Leyes
PO Box 3271
San Juan PR 00902
(787) 722-2121 Ext. 4383
The statutes are translated at the Oficina de Traducciones (Translations Office) of the Office of Legistative Services, Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico. If the statute that you need is recent and is not available at the Department of State, a request should be sent to:
Oficina de Servicios Legislativos
PO Box 9023986
San Juan PR 00902-3986
(787)721-5200
Regulations
The regulations are published by Michie Co. but only 17 volumes are available at the present time. The rest of the regulations are available from the Department of State of Puerto Rico. The regulations are mostly in Spanish, but some are in English as well. If a regulation is not available in English, a request for its translation should be sent to the Department of State at the following address:
Departamento de Estado
División de Regiamentos
PO Box 9023271
San Juan PR 00902-3271
Tel. (787) 722-2121
Fax (787) 721-8399
http://www.estado.prstar.net
Official Translations of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico
The Official Translations of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico are translated at the Supreme Court Translations Office. They are sent to academic libraries free of charge. The collection is very outdated, the last translation covers 1988 opinions. To request copies of decisions that are not yet available, a request should be made to the Secretary of the Supreme Court:
Lcda. Isabel Llompart
Secretaria del Tribunal Supremo de Puerto Rico
PO Box 2392 San Juan P.R. 00903-2392
Tel. (787) 723-6033
Fax (787) 722-9177
http://www.tribunalpr.org
Online, CD-ROM and Internet
Puerto Rico legal resources
Westlaw
WESTLAW has a Puerto Rico database that contains the Puerto Rico statutes , both in Spanish and in English. Recent statutes are in the file LEGIS but it does not include all the statutes. Also includes court rules, insurance administrative code and bulletins, a database of decisions from the Ist Circuit and from the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. It contains many decisions from the District Court that are not published in the Federal Supplement. The complete decisions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, in Spanish, are included in the database. Other useful files are the Puerto Rico journals and law reviews which contains the journals of the University of Puerto Rico Law School and the Interamerican University Law School.
Lexis
LEXIS has a Puerto Rico library that contains a file for the annotated statutes, both in English and Spanish, and a file that contains the text of recently passed laws, though it is not updated. There is a separate cases file which contains the decisions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, in Spanish, since 1899. Recently they added the decisions of the Appellate Court since 1995. Also includes the text of the University of Puerto Rico Law Review, court rules and other related files by area of law.
Compaclerk (Westgroup)
This is a database in CD-ROM format containing the full text in Spanish of Leyes de Puerto Rico 4notadas (Laws of Puerto Rico 4nnotated), and the full text of the decisions, in Spanish, of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, from 1899 to the present. Also includes some agency regulations and recent laws passed by the Legislature of Puerto Rico.
MicroJuris
This database is available through the World Wide Web on a subscription basis. It contains the opinions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico since 1949 and the Appellate Circuit Court of Puerto Rico since 1995. It also includes the Laws of Puerto Rico Annotated.
The file of legislative information contains abstracts of the acts approved daily, the bills and resolutions introduced in the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico since 1985 and their status in the legislative process, history of the bills, organized by subject, bill number, and other indexes. It also includes an index and abstracts of government regulations organized by subject, agency names and other access points.
Lexis / Puerto Rico Law on Disc
This database in CD-ROM fonmat contains the opinions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico since 1948, the opinions of the Appellate Circuit Court of Puerto Rico since 1995, the Laws of Puerto Rico Annotated, and a file containing the regulations of Puerto Rico organized by government agency. A file containing the latest bills signed into law is included also.
JTS (Jurisprudencia del Tribunal Supremo)
This publication has the most current printed collection of the opinions of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. Now it is available on the Internet on a subscription basis and also includes the opinions of the Appellate Court since 1995 . It also includes their own digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Appellate Court.
Consulta Legislativa
A long standarized service to obtain copies of bills, resolutions and all the legislative histories of Puerto Rico statutes organized by subject.
Selected Puerto Rico Internet resources
Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico http://home.coqui.net/jperez
Colegio de Abogados de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Bar Association home page) http://www.capr.org
Consulta Legislativa (Status of bills and resolutions) http://www.consultalegislativa.com
Departamento de Estado (P.R. Dept. of State) http://www.estado.prstar.net
Gobierno de Puerto Rico http://www.prstar.net
Information and links to Government of P.R. agencies and other related sites.
It has and English language version.
JTS http://www.elconsultor.es/revistaec/jurispts.htm
P.R. Cases, JTS digest
LexJuris http://www.lexjuris.com
Free access, opinions from 1997, statutes and other related information
MicroJuris http://www.microjuris.com
Cases, statutes, regulations, bills
Senado de Puerto Rico http://www.senadoprus.org//
Information about the Senate of Puerto Rico.
Tribunal General de Puerto Rico http://www.tribunalpr.org
General court system and links to other related sources
University of Puerto Rico Library Catalog http://www.upr.clu.edu/webpac