Fifteen years of open access to law: what have been done and what are the next steps

Fifteen years of open access to law: what have been done and what are the next steps

Daniel Poulin, Director, LexUM, U. of Montreal

Abstract

Open access to law took its source in the seminal initiative of two law professors at Cornell University in 1992. Rapidly others researchers and professors adopted the idea in the United States and elsewhere. Later on, government bodies started to join in by establishing free access for some of their law as well. In general terms, it may be said that this movement to make the law accessible for free on the Internet is now fifteen year old.

At this point, it is interesting to take stock of those efforts and to clarify what has been demonstrated, to identify what is still disputed and to look at what must be commenced to further extend open access.

References :

9th International Conference "Law via the Internet" hosted in Florence, organized by the Institute of Legal Information Theory and Techniques of the Italian National Research Council (ITTIG-CNR)

Daniel Poulin (LexUM, Canada), Fifteen Years of Open Access to Law: What Have Been Done and What Are the Next Steps

Abstract

Slides

LexUM laboratory at U. of Montreal had been involved in the open access to law initiative since its inception. Drawing the experience gained in the course of establishing open access in Canada and of supporting it abroad in numerous activities, we propose our reading of the development of the open access to law movement.