01 CORPUS
Explore laws
Browse coded laws, inspect provisions, and compare jurisdictions.
LEXLaws of Expression
LEX turns complex laws on expression, misinformation and disinformation into a structured comparative corpus with systematic legal coding and global legislative monitoring.
One platform
From legal text to public insight
Move from legal instruments, to coded evidence, to comparative findings, legislative developments, and human-rights reporting.
02 CODEBOOK
Understand the coding
Search the complete LEX coding framework and inspect Institutional Grammar for each item.
03 MONITORING
Track legal change
Follow proposed bills globally and connect emerging legislation to expression-related risks.
LEX Corpus
Explore laws through expression.
Search laws, filter jurisdictions, and inspect provision-level coding across the LEX corpus.
LEX Codebook · Fall 2025
Explore how LEX codes law.
LEX uses Institutional Grammar to turn legal text into comparable legal rules. Search all coding items by section, actor, or type of expression.
Institutional Grammar
ADICO syntax
Each institutional statement identifies who a rule applies to, the expected behavior, the action or outcome, the conditions under which it applies, and the institutional consequence for noncompliance.
AAttribute
DDeontic
IaIm
CCondition
OOr Else
Coding values
1legal rule appears as written
0legal rule does not exist
-1rule appears as the negation
Open Data
Download the LEX dataset.
LEX data are archived in Harvard Dataverse for public access, citation, and reuse.
Harvard Dataverse
LEX data archive
Access the dataset record, version information, metadata, and downloadable files through Harvard Dataverse.
doi:10.7910/DVN/ITKWZW
Use the data
Research-ready access
The archive serves as the canonical public distribution point for LEX data. Dataset versions can be cited using the persistent DOI.
Persistent identifier
The DOI remains the stable reference even as new dataset versions are published.
LEX coding tool
Code a legal text.
Analyze legal text through the LEX coding workflow and review coded results.
1Add a law
Upload PDF / TXT / MD
PDF · TXT · MD
2Review coding
No results yet
Run the coding workflow to review results.
4matches
R1coding round
Expression · Rights of othersEvidence excerpt and legal citation.
Governance · OversightModel rationale followed by reviewer verification.
Existing functionality
Expression Laws coding tool
The existing Hugging Face coding tool is available directly within LEX.
Research & policy
Turn the corpus into usable research.
LEX research uses comparative legal data to study how expression is regulated, how law operates in practice, and how new methods can support systematic legal analysis.
A Cumulative Report on Expression Laws: Understanding the Legal Architectures that Govern Freedom of Expression
Uses the LEX dataset to map how expression law has evolved across countries and over time, including the growth of platform governance, mis- and disinformation rules, crisis regulation, and emerging AI governance.
Read report ↗Technical Report on Using LLMs for Legal Coding
Evaluates LLMs and fine-tuned BERT approaches for coding expression laws and develops a two-stage, human-in-the-loop workflow for AI-assisted legal coding.
Read report ↗Carrots, Sticks, and Our Right of Expression: How Executive Pressure Shapes Judicial Decisions and the Limits of Legal Text
Examines how courts expand or restrict freedom of expression and how judicial decisions relate to formal expression law and executive pressure on the judiciary.
Read report ↗Global Tracker · Updated monthly
Track bills before they become law.
LEX monitors proposed national legislation that could enter the corpus if enacted and that has a meaningful connection to freedom of expression, online speech, synthetic media, or platform governance.
Legislation under watch
| Country | Bill | Status | Expression relevance | Last reviewed | Source |
|---|
Human Rights Reporting
Assess the normative direction of Expression law.
LEX aggregates the valence of coded legal rules into law-level normative scores.
Normative score
Built from coded legal rules
The codebook distinguishes rules that appear as written, rules that do not appear, and rules that appear in negated form. Law-level reporting can aggregate these coded valences into a comparable score.
Categories
Classification framework
Each law will also receive a human-rights category.
Coded laws
Scores populate from the verified coded dataset.
About LEX
A research infrastructure for understanding de jure freedom of expression around the world.
LEX is a framework for systematic legal coding of laws affecting freedom of expression. We provide a coding tool and data for scholars, practitioners, journalists, and policymakers.
LEX allows for legislative monitoring, human-rights reporting, and public-facing research on freedom of expression through legal coding with Institutional Grammar.
1 · CollectIdentify relevant law.
2 · CodeMap to LEX codebook.
3 · VerifyHuman review of results.
4 · PublishCorpus, data, tracking, and research.