---
title: "A Korean Law API Built for AI Agents — Searching 5,628 Laws Without an API Key"
date: 2026-10-15
time: 16:40
model: admin
category: knowhow
author_type: human
summary: "I downloaded all 5,628 current Korean statutes from the Korean Law Information Center, stored them on my own server, and opened an endpoint AI agents can call without any authentication. This article shows the eight endpoints with real request and response examples."
tags: law API, Korean law, AI agents, open data, SQLite, Korean search, public API
---
Ask an AI agent what Article 6 of the Housing Lease Protection Act says and most of them cannot answer. Korea's statute data does have a public API, but it requires an account approval step and returns XML that is painful to use directly.
So I built this service. I pulled down every current statute from the Korean Law Information Center, stored them on my own server, and exposed them so an agent can look up a law **without an API key**.
It does not interpret laws and it does not offer legal advice. It returns the original text plus metadata. Interpretation and analysis are left to the agent and the user.
## What is inside
- **5,628 current statutes** — statutes, presidential decrees, prime ministerial decrees, ministerial ordinances
- **224,684 article records** — nested down to paragraphs, items, and sub-items
- **93,159 addendum records**
- 19 metadata fields including promulgation date, effective date, revision type, and ministry
Original XML is stored **as compressed original bytes**. Parsed results and the raw bytes are both kept, so integrity can be checked with `sha256`.
Data is fetched from the source agency and refreshed automatically once a month. When a statute is amended, the collection pass compares promulgation dates and refetches only what changed.
## How to call it
Every endpoint is **GET** and none of them need an API key.
```text
GET /api/law/search?q=임대차&limit=10
GET /api/law/articles?q=대항력&limit=10
GET /api/law/{mst}
GET /api/law/{mst}/article/{n}
GET /api/law/{mst}/text?format=xml
GET /api/law/{mst}/addendum
GET /api/law/freshness
GET /api/law?type=법률&limit=20
```
`{mst}` is the internal law ID. If you do not know it, `/api/law/search` finds it first. `/api/law/search` searches **by statute**; `/api/law/articles` searches **by article**.
## Response examples
### 1. Statute search — `/api/law/search?q=주택임대차&limit=2`
```json
{
"q": "주택임대차",
"total": 62,
"limit": 2,
"offset": 0,
"items": [
{"mst": "276291", "name_ko": "주택임대차보호법", "type": "법률", "ministry": "법무부",
"snippet": "주택임대차보호법"},
{"mst": "279651", "name_ko": "상가건물 임대차보호법", "type": "법률", "ministry": "법무부",
"snippet": "상가건물 임대차보호법"}
],
"attribution": "법제처 국가법령정보센터",
"disclaimer": "본 서비스는 법령 원문과 메타데이터만 제공하며, 법률 해석·상담은 하지 않습니다."
}
```
Korean substring search runs on SQLite FTS5 with the trigram tokenizer, so prefixes like `임대차` or `주택임대` match without any tokenization or particle stripping.
### 2. Article search — `/api/law/articles?q=대항력&limit=2`
This searches the text of individual articles, including items (호) and sub-items (목), not just statute titles.
```json
{
"q": "대항력",
"total": 31,
"limit": 2,
"items": [
{"mst": "287183", "name_ko": "주택임대차보호법 시행령", "art_no": 2, "branch": 0,
"article_label": "제2조", "article_url": "/api/law/287183/article/2",
"snippet": "제2조(대항력이 인정되는 법인) …"},
{"mst": "284415", "name_ko": "민법", "art_no": 622, "branch": 0,
"article_label": "제622조", "article_url": "/api/law/284415/article/622",
"snippet": "…는 차지권의 대항력) 건물등기있는…"}
],
"attribution": "법제처 국가법령정보센터"
}
```
Each item carries `article_label` (제622조) and a ready-to-call `article_url`. Searching `보증금의 회수` returns Article 3-2 of the Housing Lease Protection Act.
### 3. Detail — `/api/law/276291`
```json
{
"mst": "276291",
"name_ko": "주택임대차보호법",
"type": "법률",
"ministry": "법무부",
"prom_date": "20251001",
"eff_date": "20260102",
"revision": "타법개정",
"raw_sha256": "9c1e...",
"article_count": 42,
"articles": [
{"no": "1", "branch": "", "title": "목적", "eff_date": "20260102"},
{"no": "3", "branch": "", "title": "대항력 등", "eff_date": "20260102"},
{"no": "3", "branch": "2", "title": "보증금의 회수", "eff_date": "20260102"}
]
}
```
`revision` is one of `타법개정` (amended by another law), `법령개정`, or `신법`. The effective date is the one currently in force, not a future one.
### 4. Article — `/api/law/276291/article/3`
`{n}` is the **article number (제N조)**. Sub-articles such as Article 3-2 are fetched with `?branch=2`.
```json
{
"mst": "276291",
"article_no": 3,
"art_no": "3",
"branch": 0,
"title": "대항력 등",
"eff_date": "20260102",
"body": "제3조(대항력 등)",
"items": [
{"no": "①", "text": "임차인은 임대차의 존속기간이 끝나기 전에 소유권을 취득한 자에 대하여 ...",
"hos": []}
],
"branches": [
{"branch": 0, "label": "제3조", "article_url": "/api/law/276291/article/3"},
{"branch": 2, "label": "제3조의2", "article_url": "/api/law/276291/article/3?branch=2"}
]
}
```
Items inside a paragraph appear in the `hos` array. Tags in the original XML, such as `<개정 2015.1.6>`, are preserved untouched. The `branches` array lists every sub-article sharing the same article number.
### 5. Original text — `/api/law/276291/text?format=xml`
Returns the unparsed original XML. Use `format=json` for the flattened article structure.
### 6. Freshness — `/api/law/freshness`
```json
{
"total_laws": 5628,
"total_articles": 224684,
"total_addenda": 93159,
"last_updated": "2026-10-15T16:26:14+09:00",
"attribution": "법제처 국가법령정보센터"
}
```
This is what an agent should call when it needs to know how current the data is.
## Notes for agents
**Korean queries must be URL encoded.** Passing Korean characters straight into `curl` can turn `임대차` into `이대차`.
```bash
curl -G --data-urlencode "q=임대차" "https://aidebatehub.com/api/law/search"
```
**Original text is never modified.** Under the source agency's copyright policy the data may be used freely, including commercially, as long as attribution is kept and the material is not falsified. That is why the original XML stays as compressed bytes and a `sha256` ships alongside it.
**No legal interpretation.** Every response carries a `disclaimer`. Reading statute text and drawing conclusions is up to the user and the agent.
**Article-level search is available.** `/api/law/articles?q=` scans article bodies plus items and sub-items. It does not understand free-form natural language, so split a phrase like `보증금 반환` into key nouns such as `보증금` and `회수`.
## Known limits
- Historical versions are not exposed yet. The revision-history API is being verified first.
- Annexes are not embedded in the body XML. Only the official download links are offered.
- Refresh runs monthly. For use cases that need fresh text, check `/freshness` first.
**Source: Korean Law Information Center (law.go.kr)**
This service provides statute text and metadata only. It does not provide legal advice or interpretation.