Legal Information Institutes:
What do they offer India and the
SAARC region?
Graham Greenleaf, Professor of Law,
University of New South Wales,
and Co-Director, AustLII
Indian Law Institute
New Delhi, India, 19 December 2007
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Outline of presentation
1. Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) and
global free access to law
2. Free access to law in India and the
SAARC region
3. Demonstration: Searching LIIs for
Indian and SAARC regional law
4. Possible future developments
New Delhi, 19/12/07
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 principles
– A commitment to global collaboration
New Delhi, 19/12/07
The LIIs of the Asia-Pacific
CanLII - Canada
AustLII - Australia
PacLII: 20 Pacific Island
states (including PNG)
AsianLII - 26 other
Asian jurisdictions
New Delhi, 19/12/07
LII:Cornell - US Federal
NZLII - New Zealand
HKLII - Hong Kong
New LIIs emerging - eg
LawPhil (Philippines)
The global structure of LIIs
LIIs outside the Asia-Pacific
SAFLII
- 18 countries in S&E Africa -
Juri Burkina
- Burkina Faso -
CyLaw
- Cyprus -
BAILII
- UK & Ireland CommonLII
- 54 Commonwealth countries -
WorldLII
- All LIIs & International law -
Droit Francophone
- 20 francophone countries -
AsianLII
-26 Asian jurns-
HKLII
- Hong Kong-
AustLII
- Australia -
NZLII
- New Zealand -
CanLII
- Canada-
LII (Cornell)
- US Federal -
New Delhi, 19/12/07
PacLII
-20 Pacific jurns-
New Delhi, 19/12/07
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
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Australasian Legal
Information Institute
• AustLII’s Australian operations
– 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) etc
– CommonLII and AsianLII are the most recent example of AustLII’s
mission to develop free access to law internationally
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Commonwealth Legal
Information Institute
• CommonLII gives new meaning to ‘common law’
– No longer a ‘one way street’ from the UK
• 562 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 bodies
• English as the language of the common law
• Databases are shared with AsianLII & WorldLII
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Asian Legal
Information Institute
• AsianLII - the first Asia-wide law portal
• Launched in December 2006 - 1st birthday!
• 172 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
New Delhi, 19/12/07
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Free access to Indian law Current providers
• Courts Informatics Div., National Informatics Centre
– India Code
– Indian Courts (SC, 18 HCs, 12 DCs and 9 Tribunals)
• Strengths
– Comprehensive provision of data (one of the world’s largest)
– Case law is usually very up-to-date
– Good historic depth of legislation and much case law
• Further needs for improvements
–
–
–
–
Cannot search all Courts, or Courts + Legislation, together
Search language does not support all Boolean operators
No hypertext links between cases and legislation
Not very flexible in how results are displayed
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Demonstration:
SAARC law on AsianLII
•
SAARC pages on AsianLII
–
–
•
South Asian Assn for Regional Cooperation
Allows free comparative law research
Example: search for laws concerning terrorism
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
•
Search databases of all 8 countries + SAARC
Search other websites (Websearch)
Search for what Google can find
View catalog of SAARC country websites
Can display results jointly or from 1 country
This is a prototype for a SAARC LII
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Demonstration:
Indian law on AsianLII
• 18 Indian databases on AsianLII and CommonLII
–
–
–
–
2 legislation + 1 law reform + 14 case-law + 1 journal
More are being added
Data provided by NIC (s52(1)(q) Copyright Act 1957)
Can browse alphabetically or by year
• Demonstration search for arbitration etc
–
–
–
–
–
Searches legislation + all cases etc together
Relevance ranking (most important items first)
Displays by database, or most recent cases
Hypertext links between cases and legislation
Another search: refugees and housing
• Could easily be the basis for a LII for India
New Delhi, 19/12/07
Future LII developments
in India and SAARC region
• A legal information institute for India?
– A complementary way of publishing the NIC data
– Based in India, using LII software etc
– Integrated with SAARC portal, and other LIIs
• 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
New Delhi, 19/12/07
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
New Delhi, 19/12/07