WorldLII: A new home for Commonwealth law online

Graham Greenleaf, Philip Chung, and Andrew Mowbray

13th Commonwealth Law ConferenceMelbourne, 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 Affirms importance of Courts / governments providing

access to legal data to 3rd-party publishers A challenge & invitation to Courts and governments

WorldLII <www.worldlii.org> Main features 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) - 300+ All Case Law - 150+ national & international All Highest National Courts - 20+ All Legislation - 30+ 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 email) 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

<http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~graham/publications/2003/Cth_Conference/WorldLII_Cth_final.html>