Terms of Service

1. Agreement

These Terms of Service govern your use of silexlegal.org and the Silex Legal citation research platform (together, the "Service") operated by Silex Legal GmbH ("the Company," "we," "us," or "our") (Bahnhofstrasse 52, 8001 Zurich, Switzerland). By accessing or using the Service you accept these Terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the Service.

If you are a consumer (a natural person acting outside your trade, business, craft, or profession), nothing in these Terms limits your statutory consumer rights under the law of your country of residence.

2. Nature of the Service

Silex Legal is an AI-assisted research tool that identifies controlling Swiss statutes from the Systematische Rechtssammlung (SR), Bundesgericht (BGer) decisions, and cantonal court precedent, and returns the full citation trail with links to official sources.

The Service returns only citations it can verify against its indexed source database. It does not generate speculative citations or legal opinions. However, the output of the Service is a research aid and does not constitute legal advice. Practitioners remain responsible for verifying citations in the primary sources linked and for assessing their applicability to a specific matter.

3. Use of the Service

• You must be at least 18 years old or have parental or guardian consent to use the Service.
• You agree not to use the Service for unlawful purposes, to attempt unauthorised access to our systems, or to interfere with the Service's operation.
• You may not copy, scrape, systematically download, or reverse-engineer the Service or its underlying citation index except as permitted by mandatory applicable law.
• You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

4. Intellectual Property

The Service, including its citation resolution engine, the compiled SR index, BGer decision index, and cantonal court database, is owned by the Company or its licensors and is protected by Swiss and international intellectual-property law. You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Service for its intended purpose under a valid subscription or free-tier access.

Underlying statute texts, Bundesgericht decisions, and cantonal court rulings are public-domain Swiss legal materials. The selection, arrangement, annotation, and linking in the Silex Legal index are proprietary.

5. User Content

You are responsible for any content you submit to the Service, including the legal queries you enter. You represent that your submission does not violate any applicable law or third-party rights. You grant the Company a limited licence to use, store, and process submitted content solely to operate and deliver the Service.

The Company does not use the substance of your legal queries to train machine-learning models without your explicit written consent.

6. Right of Withdrawal (Consumer Contracts)

Where you enter into a paid subscription with the Company as a consumer at a distance, you have the right to withdraw within 14 days of entering the contract without giving any reason. To exercise the right, contact [email protected] with a clear statement of your intent to withdraw. The Company will refund all payments received within 14 days of receiving your withdrawal notice.

This right applies only to paid subscription tiers. The free tier does not involve a paid contract.

7. Disclaimers and Statutory Guarantees

The Service is provided on an "as is" basis. The Company makes no warranty that citation results are complete, current, or applicable to any particular legal matter. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits the Company's liability for (a) death or personal injury caused by negligence, (b) fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or (c) any other liability that cannot be excluded under mandatory Swiss law. Statutory guarantees that apply to consumers are not affected.

The Company's citation index covers federal statutes in the SR, published and unpublished BGer decisions, and cantonal sources as described on the Coverage page. Coverage gaps for some cantonal jurisdictions are disclosed on that page. Where a query falls within an area of incomplete coverage, the Service will state so rather than return an uncertain result.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the extent permitted by Swiss law, the Company's total aggregate liability for any claim arising from or related to the Service will not exceed the amount you paid to the Company in the 12 months preceding the claim, or CHF 100 (whichever is greater), except for liability that cannot be limited under mandatory law (see Section 7).

9. Termination

The Company may suspend or terminate your access to the Service for material breach of these Terms, with notice where practicable. You may close your account at any time by contacting [email protected]. Sections 4, 7, 8, 10, and 11 survive termination.

10. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of Switzerland, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules.

The courts of Zurich, Switzerland have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute arising out of or in connection with these Terms, subject to the mandatory consumer-protection rules of your country of residence (Article 17-19 Regulation (EU) 1215/2012 where applicable). If you are a consumer, you may also bring proceedings before the courts of your habitual residence, and the Company may sue you only in those courts.

The European Commission provides an Online Dispute Resolution platform at ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. The Company does not commit to using an ODR procedure but will cooperate where required by applicable law.

11. Changes

The Company may update these Terms. Material changes will be communicated by posting a revised version with a new "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Service after the effective date of the revised Terms constitutes acceptance.

12. Contact