Call for Papers: LVI 2013: Law via the Internet Conference

The call for papers and presentation proposals has been issued for LVI 2013: Law via the Internet Conference, to be held 26-27 September 2013 on the Channel Island of Jersey.

The conference Website does not seem to state the deadline for submitting papers or proposals. If you know the submission deadline, please feel free to tell us in the comments to this post.

[UPDATE 11 February 2013: The conference organizers now say the submission deadline is 31 March 2013.]

Papers are invited on the topics covered by any of the seven tracks in which the conference program is divided:

• E-Learning: distance, blended, open, mobile, gaming, MOOCing and more?
• Online legal information – starting from scratch
• Legal knowledge in the age of the semantic web
• Communicating our work: journals, blogs and other ways of publishing about open access
• Privacy v open government in legal publishing
• Emerging patterns of information access and usage
• Technological development and free access to law

The conference Twitter account is @JerseyLVI2013 and the conference hashtag is #lvi2013

For details about the tracks, please see the track Websites.

For more details about the conference, please see the conference Website.

LVI 2013: Law via the Internet Conference of the free access to law community

LVI 2013: The Law via the Internet Conference of the free-access-to-law community, will be held 26-27 September 2013 in Jersey, Channel Islands.

The call for papers deadline has not been announced. I’ll post it when I learn about it.

The conference is being organized by the Jersey Legal Information Board, which publishes the free-access-to-law service Jersey Law.

HT @sglassmeyer

Palmirani et al., eds.: AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems: Papers from AICOL III

Professor Dr. Monica Palmirani, Professor Dr. Ugo Pagallo, Professor Dr. Pompeu Casanovas, and Professor Dr. Giovanni Sartor, have edited a new book entitled AI Approaches to the Complexity of Legal Systems – Models and Ethical Challenges for Legal Systems, Legal Language and Legal Ontologies, Argumentation and Software Agents (Springer, 2012).

The book contains revised selected papers from International Workshop AICOL-III, Held as Part of the 25th IVR Congress, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, August 15-16, 2011.

HT Professor Palmirani

Greenleaf et al. on Building the Legal Information Institute of India

Professor Dr. Graham Greenleaf of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law, and colleagues, have published Challenges for Free Access to Law in a Multi-Jurisdictional Developing Country: Building the Legal Information Institute of India, SCRIPTed, 8(3), 292-316 (2011). Here is the abstract:

This article analyses the complexities involved in providing free public online access to the “public legal information” of the Indian legal system. It starts with some of the causes of the complexity of Indian legal information then describes the considerable progress that has previously been made in the provision of free access to some types of legal information, but why the result is still below international standards. The article then explains a project to remedy some of these deficiencies, the Legal Information Institute of India (LII of India), being carried out by eight Indian law schools and an international partner. It has developed in its first year of public operation, the LII of India, a system with over 750,000 searchable documents and 151 databases. The considerable remaining challenges for creation of a world-standard and sustainable system are then outlined, and steps proposed to address them. The extent to which this collaborative project might be a model for development of free access to legal information in other countries is considered.

New on VoxPopuLII: Moncion and Badeva-Bright: Reaching Sustainability of Free Access to Law Initiatives

Isabelle Moncion of Lexum and Mariya Badeva-Bright of the African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII), have posted Reaching Sustainability of Free Access to Law Initiatives, on the VoxPopuLII Blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In this post, the authors summarize the key findings of the recently completed “Free Access to Law – Is It Here to Stay?” Project, on the sustainability of legal information institutes (LIIs). The methodology of the project — funded by the International Development Research Centre and conducted by the Chair in Legal Information at the University of Montreal — consisted of case studies of the use and management of LIIs in Burkina Faso, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Niger, the Philippines, South Africa, and Uganda.

In this post, the authors identify key principles emerging from those case studies, and illustrate the potential utility of those principles by reference to the case of AfricanLII.

Among the major findings of the study are that LIIs are more likely to be sustainable when they operate at a jurisdictional level at which revenues can be realized, and offer content and services appropriate to that level; identify core user groups willing to pay for content or services; target content and services to those core user groups; and engage with those core user groups in the development of content and services.

This post will be of interest to the free-access-to-law community, to the legal publishing community, and to advocates of access to justice and to government information, as well as to those who study information and communications technology for development (ICT4D).

Miguel on Free Access to Law in South America

Teresa M. Miguel, Esq., of Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library has posted The Digital Legal Landscape in South America: Government Transparency and Access to Information, on SSRN, in Legal Information and Technology eJournal. Here is the abstract:

The governments of ten South American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela) vary widely in the quantity and quality of free legal information each offers to its citizens. Each country has made a significant effort in providing basic legal texts, such as codes, laws and decrees, in a systematic, searchable, and reliable database. Jurisprudence of the courts, whose significance varies widely among these countries steeped in the civil law tradition, is often less accessible. Some countries have more means and better infrastructure than others which, naturally, is reflected in the quality of the databases, search engines, and archives.

Most of these countries have enacted transparency laws to which all government entities are subjected. Countries with laws pertaining to transparency in order of strength of law are: Chile (2008), Peru (2002), Ecuador (2004), Uruguay (2008), Colombia (1985), Argentina (2003 decree), and Bolivia (2005 decree). These transparency laws do not only pertain to budget, fiscal responsibility, and political accountability, but also to free public access to legal information. The transparency laws from both Peru and Ecuador, for example, are entitled, Law of Transparency and Access to Information, and obligate government entities to be proactive in making legal information freely accessible.

In the following report, the transparency laws are briefly discussed at the beginning of each country report. The focus of this overall project, however, is not specifically on whether a country has laws governing transparency and access to information, but rather, whether a country is indeed making available to its citizens free, current, reliable, official, and authentic legal information in a way that is easy to find, access, obtain, and read. Supplementary information is also provided about how non-profit legal databases and commercial providers of legal information fit into each country’s digital legal landscape. Please note that unless otherwise indicated, all websites and documents are in the vernacular language, i.e. Spanish or Portuguese for Brazil.

New on VoxPopuLII: Moncion on New Research About Legal Information Institutes

Isabelle Moncion of the Chair in Legal Information of the University of Montreal, and Lexum, has posted Building Sustainable LIIs – or Free Access to Law as Seen Through the Eyes of a Newbie, on the VoxPopuLII Blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In this post, Ms. Moncion describes two IDRC-funded studies into the use and sustainability of legal information institutes — sites that offer free Internet access to the full text of primary legal information — in Asia, West Africa, and Southern Africa. The studies are being conducted by the Chair in Legal Information of the University of Montreal.

The first study addresses the use of, and potential demand for, legal information institutes in four West African countries: Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. The second study concerns the sustainability of legal information institutes, in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa.

Ms. Moncion’s post discusses the methodology and summarizes preliminary findings of the studies.

This post will be of interest to advocates of access to justice and to government information, and to the legal publishing community, as well as to those who study information and communications technology for development (ICT4D).

[Editor's Note: The original version of this post contained an error. The original version of the post stated that the studies described in the post are being conducted by Lexum and the Chair in Legal Information of the University of Montreal. That information is incorrect. The studies described in the post are being conducted solely by the Chair in Legal Information of the University of Montreal. Lexum has no role in the studies. We regret the error. The post has been corrected as of 5 May 2011.]

Legal Information Institute of India Launches in Delhi

On 9 March 2011, The Legal Information Institute of India (LIIofIndia) officially launches in Delhi, India.

According to the LII of India Website, subsequent launches are scheduled to occur “in Hyderabad on 11 March, Bangalore on 23 March, and Kolkota on 8 April.”

Professor Dr. V.C. Vivekanandan of Nalsar Law University is Director of LII of India.

Click here for a brochure (in PDF) describing LII of India.

As of 8 March 2011, LII of India appears to offer free Internet access to 108 databases, including decisions from Indian national and state courts and tribunals, Indian national and state legislation and regulations, Indian bilateral treaties, summaries of recent Indian legislation, the LawCite citator, documents related to law reform, and articles from 9 law journals.

Here’s a description, written in December 2010, by Teresa Miguel of the Yale Law School Library.

New on VoxPopuLII: Holmes on Accessible Law

Nick Holmes of infolaw has posted Accessible Law, on the VoxPopuLII Blog, published by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University Law School.

In this post, Mr. Holmes discusses the state of the free access to law movement, and the challenges of making free law usable by ordinary citizens. Mr. Holmes describes FreeLegalWeb, his new free access to law service, that combines free primary law with expert legal commentary presented via blogs, to make the law more accessible to the people.

Mr. Holmes also discusses the recent debate between Bob Berring, Tom Bruce, and others over the quality of access to law provided by commercial computer assisted legal research services and free law services, as well as Jason Wilson’s concept of online legal publishing as curation.

This post will be of interest to those who develop or manage legal information systems; to the legal publishing community; to the free access to law community; and all who are interest in improving public access to legal information.

“Accessing Legal Information” Roundtable @ A2K Global Academy Workshop

A report on the roundtable on Accessing Legal Information, at the Access to Knowledge Global Academy Workshop, held 18-19 January 2011 at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, has been posted by Jake Gardener at the Yale Information Society Project.

According to the report, the panelists were Mariya Badeva-Bright, Tom Bruce, Daniel Poulin, Ivan Mokanov, Isabelle Moncion, and Darrel Pink.

The panelists discussed topics including:

• The Free Access to Law Movement;
• LexUM‘s work with JuriBurkina and JuriNiger;
• The factors influencing the recent increase in access to legal information in West Africa;
• Measures for evaluating the effectiveness of free access to law initiatives;
• the African Legal Information Institute (African LII);
• the sustainability of free access to law initiatives;
• the relationship between access to legal information, and democracy and the rule of law; and
• “the public interest in making legal information easily accessible to everybody.”

For more information, please see the entire report.