Legal Information Institutes: What do they offer the SAARC region and regional trade? Graham Greenleaf, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, and Co-Director, AustLII International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) South Asia Trade Seminar, Sydney, May 2008

Outline of presentation 1.Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) and global free access to law 2.Free access to law in the SAARC region 3.Demonstration: Searching LIIs for SAARC regional law 4.Possible future developments

What is a Legal Information Institute (LII)? Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) –Provides free and non-profit online access –Publishes multi-sourced legal resources Collections, not just its own cases or legislation –Usually independent of governments - sometimes collaboration –May be national, regional, language-based, or global The Free Access to Law Movement –A global association of LIIs from all continents –Shares a Declaration of principlesDeclaration –A commitment to global collaboration

The LIIs of the Asia-Pacific CanLII - CanadaCanLII LII:Cornell - US FederalLII:Cornell AustLII - AustraliaAustLII NZLII - New ZealandNZLII PacLII: 20 Pacific Island states (including PNG)PacLII HKLII - Hong KongHKLII AsianLII - 26 other Asian jurisdictionsAsianLII New LIIs emerging - eg LawPhil (Philippines)

The global structure of LIIs

Who operates LIIs? Universities, as public service –LII (Cornell) PacLII, HKLII, AustLII, NZLII, LawPhil –AsianLII, Droit Francophone, CommonLII, WorldLII, jointly for LIIs A non-profit Trust / Foundation (NGOs) –BAILII (BAILII Trust members are from Courts, Universities, Legal Profession) –SAFLII (South African Constitutional Court Trust members are from Courts, Universities etc; mandate to publish decisions from Chief Justices of Southern and Eastern African countries) –Kenya Law Reports (non-profit government-owned publisher) The Legal Profession, as professional & public services –CanLII (Law Societies of Canada with a University) –Juri Burkina; CyLaw

Australasian Legal Information Institute AustLII’s Australian operationsAustLII’s –In operation 12 years since 1995 –Free-access, non-profit service by 2 Australian Law Faculties (UTS & UNSW) –252 databases of Australian law –650,000 accesses per day; more than all commercial services –AustLII developed its own search engine and mark-up software AustLII’s international role –Leading member of the Free Access to Law Movement –Since 2000, AustLII has used its software and expertise to assist the development of free access to law in other countries: BAILII (UK), PacLII (Pacific Islands), HKLII (HK), NZLII (New Zealand) etcfree access to law in other countries: –CommonLII and AsianLII are the most recent example of AustLII’s mission to develop free access to law internationally

Commonwealth Legal Information Institute CommonLII gives new meaning to ‘common law’CommonLII –No longer a ‘one way street’ from the UK 571 databases from 59 Commonwealth countries/territories –Most are on existing LIIs, CommonLII is a network Supported by Commonwealth Law Ministers –And by most other Commonwealth-wide legal bodiesCommonwealth-wide legal bodies English as the language of the common law Databases are shared with AsianLII & WorldLII

Asian Legal Information Institute AsianLII - the first Asia-wide law portalAsianLII Launched in December databases from all 28 Asian countries –Key legislation in English from almost all countries –Over 200,000 cases in full text –Also law reform and law journals Over 50,000 page accesses per day Increasing databases in non-English languages Increasingly a network of LIIs as new LIIs form –HKLII, PacLII (PNG), soon LawPhil, Thai Law Support from many key regional institutions

Free access to SAARC region law - Largest providers India - Courts Informatics Div., National Informatics Centre –India Code & Indian Courts (SC, 18 HCs, 12 DCs and 9 Tribunals)India Code Indian Courts –Strength is broad coverage and up-to-date –But need to search 20+ different databases separately –Inflexible search engine LawNet SriLankaLawNet –With World Bank aid, one of the best integrated systems in the developing world Smaller systems in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Butan Problems: –No region-wide capacity to search for law from SAARC countries –Lost opportunities for trade, investment and law reform research

Demonstration: SAARC law on AsianLII SAARC pages on AsianLIISAARC –South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation –Allows free comparative law research Example: search for laws concerning arbitration 1.Search databases of all 8 countries + SAARC Searches legislation + all cases etc together Relevance ranking (most important items first) Displays by database, or most recent cases 2.Search other websites (Websearch) 3.Search for what Google can find 4.View catalog of SAARC country websites Can display results jointly or from 1 country This is a prototype for a SAARC LII

Future LII developments in the SAARC region A SAARC legal information institute? –Based in the region, using LII software etc –Partner institutions in all SAARC countries –To assist capacity building in free access resources across the SAARC region –Integrated with AsianLII, CommonLII & WorldLII Separate legal information institutes for individual countries? –Sri Lanka has one, one is planned for India –A complementary way of publishing the LawNet etc data –Integrated with SAARC portal, and other LIIs

Acknowledgments Funding sources for AsianLII & CommonLII –AusAID (Australian Dept. Foreign Affairs & Trade) –Australian Attorney-General’s Department –Australian Research Council Development of AustLII’s SAARC resources –Prof. Andrew Mowbray, SINO search engine –Philip Chung, Executive Director –Kieran Hackshall, development of databases