Malawi Law MCP Server

The Malawi Law Commission alternative for the AI age.

Query 545 Malawian Acts -- from the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act and the Penal Code to the Employment Act, Companies Act, and more -- directly from Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

If you're building legal tech, compliance tools, or doing Malawian legal research, this is your verified reference database.

Built by Ansvar Systems -- Stockholm, Sweden

Why This Exists

Malawian legal research means navigating malawilii.org, the Malawi Law Commission site (lawcom.mw), and parliament.gov.mw -- scattered across multiple sources with inconsistent formatting. Whether you're:

• A lawyer validating citations in a brief or contract
• A compliance officer checking obligations under the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act or the Competition and Fair Trading Act
• A legal tech developer building tools on Malawian law
• A researcher tracing legislative provisions across 545 Acts

...you shouldn't need dozens of browser tabs and manual cross-referencing. Ask Claude. Get the exact provision. With context.

This MCP server makes Malawian law searchable, cross-referenceable, and AI-readable.

Quick Start

Use Remotely (No Install Needed)

Connect directly to the hosted version -- zero dependencies, nothing to install.

Endpoint: https://malawi-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "malawi-law": {
      "type": "url",
      "url": "https://malawi-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

GitHub Copilot -- add to VS Code settings.json:

{
  "github.copilot.chat.mcp.servers": {
    "malawi-law": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://malawi-law-mcp.vercel.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Use Locally (npm)

npx @ansvar/malawi-law-mcp

Claude Desktop -- add to claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "malawi-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/malawi-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor / VS Code:

{
  "mcp.servers": {
    "malawi-law": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@ansvar/malawi-law-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Example Queries

Once connected, just ask naturally:

• "What does the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act say about data protection?"
• "Find provisions in the Penal Code about fraud and forgery"
• "Search for labour rights under the Employment Act"
• "What does the Companies Act say about director duties?"
• "Is the Competition and Fair Trading Act still in force?"
• "Find provisions about consumer protection in Malawian law"
• "Build a legal stance on data breach notification obligations in Malawi"
• "Validate the citation 'Section 5 of the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act 2016'"

What's Included

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources (malawilii.org, Malawi Law Commission). Zero LLM-generated content.

Why This Works

Verbatim Source Text (No LLM Processing):

• All statute text is ingested from malawilii.org (Malawi Legal Information Institute) and the Malawi Law Commission
• Provisions are returned unchanged from SQLite FTS5 database rows
• Zero LLM summarization or paraphrasing -- the database contains statute text, not AI interpretations

Smart Context Management:

• Search returns ranked provisions with BM25 scoring (safe for context)
• Provision retrieval gives exact text by Act name and section number
• Cross-references help navigate without loading everything at once

Technical Architecture:

malawilii.org / lawcom.mw --> Parse --> SQLite --> FTS5 snippet() --> MCP response
                                ^                        ^
                         Provision parser         Verbatim database query

Traditional Research vs. This MCP

Traditional: Search malawilii.org --> Navigate HTML --> Ctrl+F --> Cross-reference between Acts --> Check amendments manually --> Repeat

This MCP: "What are the data protection obligations under the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act and how do they align with SADC frameworks?" --> Done.

Available Tools (13)

Core Legal Research Tools (8)

International Law Integration Tools (5)

International Law Alignment

Malawi is not an EU member state. Malawian law develops through its own Westminster-derived constitutional and parliamentary framework, with international alignment through:

• SADC -- Southern African Development Community protocols on trade, finance, and governance
• African Union (AU) -- Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection; AU frameworks on digital economy
• Commonwealth -- Commonwealth legal traditions and model laws
• UN Conventions -- UNCAC (anti-corruption), Convention on the Rights of the Child, and international human rights instruments

The international bridge tools allow you to explore these alignment relationships -- checking which Malawian provisions correspond to SADC or AU requirements, and vice versa.

Note: International cross-references reflect alignment and framework relationships, not direct transposition. Malawi develops its own legislative approach, and the alignment tools help identify where Malawian and international law address similar domains.

Data Sources & Freshness

All content is sourced from authoritative Malawian legal databases:

• malawilii.org -- Malawi Legal Information Institute (primary source)
• Malawi Law Commission -- Official law reform and consolidation body
• Parliament of Malawi -- Official Acts and Bills

Data Provenance

Automated Freshness Checks

A GitHub Actions workflow monitors data sources for changes:

Verified data only -- every citation is validated against official sources. Zero LLM-generated content.

Security

This project uses multiple layers of automated security scanning:

See SECURITY.md for the full policy and vulnerability reporting.

Important Disclaimers

Legal Advice

THIS TOOL IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

Statute text is sourced from malawilii.org and the Malawi Law Commission. However:

• This is a research tool, not a substitute for professional legal counsel
• Court case coverage is not included -- do not rely solely on this for case law research
• Verify critical citations against primary sources for court filings
• International cross-references reflect alignment relationships, not direct transposition

Before using professionally, read: DISCLAIMER.md | SECURITY.md

Client Confidentiality

Queries go through the Claude API. For privileged or confidential matters, use on-premise deployment.

Bar Association

For professional legal use in Malawi, consult guidance from the Malawi Law Society regarding professional obligations and confidentiality requirements.

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Malawi-law-mcp
cd Malawi-law-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm test

Running Locally

npm run dev                                       # Start MCP server
npx @anthropic/mcp-inspector node dist/index.js   # Test with MCP Inspector

Data Management

npm run ingest              # Ingest Acts from malawilii.org
npm run build:db            # Rebuild SQLite database
npm run drift:detect        # Run drift detection against anchors
npm run check-updates       # Check for amendments and new Acts
npm run census              # Generate coverage census

Performance

• Search Speed: <100ms for most FTS5 queries
• Database Size: ~25 MB (efficient, portable)
• Reliability: 100% ingestion success rate across 545 Acts

Related Projects: Complete Compliance Suite

This server is part of Ansvar's Compliance Suite -- MCP servers that work together for end-to-end compliance coverage:

@ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

Query 49 EU regulations directly from Claude -- GDPR, AI Act, DORA, NIS2, MiFID II, eIDAS, and more. Full regulatory text with article-level search. npx @ansvar/eu-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

Query US federal and state compliance laws -- HIPAA, CCPA, SOX, GLBA, FERPA, and more. npx @ansvar/us-regulations-mcp

@ansvar/security-controls-mcp

Query 261 security frameworks -- ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, CIS Controls, SCF, and more. npx @ansvar/security-controls-mcp

70+ national law MCPs covering Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK, and more.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Priority areas:

• Court case law expansion (High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal)
• AU Malabo Convention cross-references
• SADC protocol alignment mapping
• Historical Act versions and amendment tracking
• Subordinate legislation coverage (statutory instruments)

Roadmap

• Core Act database with FTS5 search
• Full corpus ingestion (545 Acts, 14,392 provisions)
• International law alignment tools
• Vercel Streamable HTTP deployment
• npm package publication
• Court case law expansion (High Court, Supreme Court of Appeal)
• Historical Act versions (amendment tracking)
• Statutory instruments and subsidiary legislation
• SADC protocol cross-references

Citation

If you use this MCP server in academic research:

@software{malawi_law_mcp_2026,
  author = {Ansvar Systems AB},
  title = {Malawi Law MCP Server: AI-Powered Legal Research Tool},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://github.com/Ansvar-Systems/Malawi-law-mcp},
  note = {545 Malawian Acts with 14,392 provisions sourced from malawilii.org}
}

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Data Licenses

• Statutes & Legislation: Republic of Malawi (public domain via malawilii.org open access)
• International Framework Metadata: SADC / AU / Commonwealth (public domain)

About Ansvar Systems

We build AI-accelerated compliance and legal research tools for the global market. This MCP server started as our internal reference tool -- turns out everyone building for the Malawian or Southern African market has the same research frustrations.

So we're open-sourcing it. Navigating 545 Acts shouldn't require a law degree.

ansvar.eu -- Stockholm, Sweden

_{Built with care in Stockholm, Sweden}