WorldLII: A new home for Commonwealth law online Graham Greenleaf, Philip Chung, and Andrew Mowbray 13th Commonwealth Law Conference Melbourne, April 2003

Overview of paper Argues that free Internet access to law is vital to development of a Commonwealth common law Describes WorldLII - largest free access source of legal information on the Internet - a collaboration Surveys current state of free Internet access to law in Commonwealth countries Argues that it is more important for Courts and government to provide case and legislation data to 3rd party publishers than to publish it themselves Invites all Courts & govts in Commonwealth countries to join in publishing via WorldLII

Why value free access to law? Free access to our country’s own laws Supports the rule of law - inaccessible laws are less legitimate laws - public access must be free Increases international transparency of our legal systems - trade and legitimacy advantages Free access to other countries’ laws Advantages of comparative law for law reform In developing countries, comparative law libraries and fee-based services are impossible luxuries Cases from other common law countries (particularly UK) have precedent value ….

Commonwealth common law Historical dominance of UK decisions Influenced by greater accessibility of UK decisions - ‘hub & spokes’ model Need for an international common law Lord Cooke of Thorndon (1996) Saw greater use of international precedents ‘two way traffic over the bridge’ is apposite Brooke LJ (2003) Internet as a ‘level playing field’ for access Applies internationally, not only within UK Proliferation of websites ≠ effective access

Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) LIIs in Australasia, Canada, UK/Ireland, Pacific Islands, Hong Kong & USA Independent and University-based Non-profit, free access to law via Internet Common software and cooperation (WorldLII) Have created Internet’s largest free sources of law Montreal Declaration on Public Access to Law Montreal Declaration Affirms importance of Courts / governments providing access to legal data to 3rd-party publishers A challenge & invitation to Courts and governments

WorldLII Main featureswww.worldlii.org Free access to over 300 databases from 22 countries + international organisations Largest online collection of Commonwealth law Most databases are from its cooperating LIIs AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, HKLII, PacLII, LII (Cornell) Additional databases only on WorldLII International Courts,Tribunals, and organisations Other countries where there is no local LII WorldLII Catalog / Websearch 15,000+ links to law websites in every country Own web spider allows searching of full texts

More features of WorldLII Search options on WorldLII - examples: All Databases (default) All Case Law national & international All Highest National Courts All Legislation jurisdictions + databases of Treaties, Law Reform & Law Journals Hypertext links between jurisdictions Uniform Court-designated citations New method adopted by Australian & UK courts

The Commonwealth: How much free access exists? Legislation 20/56 countries have legislation online Largest is WorldLII (24 jurisdictions, 8 countries) Case Law 21/56 countries have case law online Largest is WorldLII (164 databases, 13 countries) Law Reform Reports 9/56 countries (23 jurisdictions) with reports online WorldLII only has ALRC (+ Ireland & HK) 50%+ Cth countries (29/56) have some significant law online

Do Cth Courts cite each other? Table in paper is only a rough indicator An example of analysis that needs to be done 14 countries cited in 2 most recent cases UK (60), Canada (10), Australia (5), NZ (5), other (10) Over 10% of these on WorldLII (10/90) - old cases Conclusions There is some support for Lord Cooke’s prediction Internet case law constributes to cross-citation WorldLII could become a ‘home’ this jurisprudence

An invitation to join WorldLII Invitation to Commonwealth Courts and governments We will include in WorldLII (or a LII) Decisions of any Commonwealth senior Court Other Courts and Tribunals if resoures allow Legislation / Law Reform from any Commonwealth country Assistance needed Data in electronic form (preferably by ) Goodwill by data providers - free access and standards We will provide Conversion of data to WorldLII’s high standard Servers with near 100% availability “24/7” A system with the highest daily access rates

‘Incubating’ new LIIs AustLII software & technical assistance & ‘start-up’ use of servers BAILII, HKLII and PacLII (CanLII only software) ‘Incubation’ within WorldLII one way to start Software available to a local partner which Is independent and non-profit (preferably University-based) Has access to key data flows in one or more jurisdictions Has the technical capacity to be self-sustaining Has sufficient finances to have reasonable prospects Is willing to be part of the WorldLII consortium

Web version of this paper Conference/WorldLII_Cth_final.html