[Fsf-friends] Free the Law
Ramanraj K
ramanraj@md4.vsnl.net.in
Thu Jun 10 10:25:31 IST 2004
Mahesh T. Pai wrote:
>Ramanraj K said on Wed, Jun 09, 2004 at 07:47:07PM +0530,:
>
> > Information Institute. The website allows _free_ access to most of
> > the Australian legal resources, including legislation and decisions
> > of
>
>Yes, and in many respects, the US of A is very back in this.
>
Not really - much legal information on USA can be found at
http://www.law.cornell.edu/ . But, AustLII has been able to evolve and
frame better vendor neutral standards. AustLII is believed to be the
world's largest legal database with about 7 GB of textual information,
and most probably Cornell might be the next. If IndLII ever comes up,
with our volume of legislation, litigation and case-law, we will beat
every other legal database in no time at all :)
> > have devised standard notation for citing case law that is
> > uniformly followed througout Australia,
>
>To a large extent, this is because Australia has a well developed and
>formalised research and citation system within _public_ control. In
>the US, this is done by private bodies, like (IIRC), LEXIS or NEXIS,
>and they have a vested interest in that an alternate citation system
>does not come up.
>
The free public access based on vendor neutral data formats and
notations are fundamental to a democracy, and now private bodies can
no longer monopolise or capitalise on the intellectual work of our
legislatures and courts. The private bodies will not go out of
business, but they will have to build their business around the free
access material - say providing more exhaustive head notes, case
summaries, cross-linking or other features. Of course, we could
expect some private bodies to do everything in their power to prevent
the introduction of vendor neutral citations.
> > not everything is free. AFAIK, there are no standard notations
> > that enable citing case-law published at the NIC servers before the
> > courts.
>
>Wait a minute. Is any case law published on any of NIC servers? I have
>not seen any. May be I am missing something?
>
Please visit: http://causelists.nic.in - Marked judgements of the
Madras High Court and few others are available on line from NIC
servers.
> > available at: http://www.lawonline.cc/accesslawright.htm under the
> > title "Free the Law"
>
>Great link.
>
>If you have the time or inclination look into the situation in
>Singapore. last time I went there (the sites, that is) they required
>software of a particular brand and version.
>
>And there is a proposal to implement something along those lines in
>India.
>
Do you mean on the style of Singapore? Are there any links?
Regards,
Ramanraj.
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