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The ‘Free Access to Law Movement’ in India: Supporting Legal Education, Research and Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2015

Priya Rai  and
Akash
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Abstract

The internet and the World Wide Web (www) has allowed the free flow of information across countries. Peter Martin and Tom Bruce from Cornell Law School pioneered the development of the ‘Free Access to Law Movement’ around the world. The Australian Legal Information Institute and various other Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) were established by adopting the Montreal Declaration at the Law via Internet Conference held in 2002. As a member of the United Nations, India adopted the UNESCO policy guidelines for the development and promotion of governmental public domain information. In India, the National Informatics Centre has played a leading role in supporting the maintenance and dissemination of Indian government public information that is useful for legal education, research and practice. This paper by Priya Rai, and Akash, gives a brief informative overview of the ‘free access to law movement’ resources pertaining to India. These resources have been categorised for easier understanding: parliamentary resources, legislative resources, case laws, law reform reports, international treaties and legal scholarship and journals. The article also provides an overview of the Legal Information Institute of India extending its contribution to disseminating Indian legal information.

Keywords

government informationlegal sourcesfree legal informationopen accessIndia
Type
International Perspectives
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 2015 , pp. 178 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2015. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 

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References

Footnotes

1 Jon Bing, Handbook of Legal Information Retrieval (Elsevier Science Ltd, 1984)

2 Greenleaf, Graham, Mowbray, Andrew and Lewis, D. (1988). Australasian computerised legal information handbook, Butterworth, in “Legal information retrieval in Australia” (Chapter 4). Available at  http://www2.austlii.edu.au/cal/guides/retrieval/handbook/index-4.html

3 Greenleaf, Graham, Mowbray, Andrew and Chung, Philip (2013). The meaning of “free access to legal information”: A twenty year evolution. Journal of Open Access to Law. 1(1). Available at  https://ojs.law.cornell.edu/index.php/joal/article/view/11/14

4 LII/ Legal Information Institute, Cornell University https:// www.law.cornell.edu/

5 Martin, P. (2000, March.). Legal information: A strong case for free content, an illustration of how difficult “Free” may be to define, realize, and sustain. Speech at the conference on Free Information Ecology. Available at https:// www.law.cornell.edu/working-papers/open/martin/free.html”

6 Australian Legal Information Institute (AusLII) http://www.austlii.edu.au/

7 British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) http://www.bailii.org/

8 Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII) http://www.bailii.org/

9 Southern Africa Legal Information Institute (SALII) http://www.bailii.org/

10 Greenleaf, Graham (2011). Free access to legal information, LIIs, and free access to law movement, in Danner, R. & Winterton, J. (Eds.), International Handbook of Legal Information Management, IALL, Ashgate. Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1960867

11 World Legal Information Institute http://www.worldlii.org/

12 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization http://en.unesco.org/

13 http://fas.org/sgp/library/unesco_govinfo.pdf accessed 8 July 2015

14 Uhlir, Paul F. (2004). Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of governmental public domain information. Paris: UNESCO.

15 Huchhanavar, Shivarai S. (2012). Legal system in ancient India. Available at http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/the-legal-system-in-ancient-india-1391-1.html

16 Ibid at 12.

17 National Informatics Centre http://www.nic.in/

18 M. P Jain, M. P. (2014). Outlines of Indian legal and constitutional history, New Delhi, LexisNexis Butterworth.

19 Supreme Court of India Monthly Pendency Cases http://supremecourtofindia.nic.in/pendingstat.htm

20 Bhowmick, Souriya (2014). Justice has a mountain to climb, of 31.3million pending of cases, The Hindustan Times 4th September 2014 Retrieved from http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/justice-has-a-mountain-to-climb-of-31-3-million-pending-cases/article1-1259920.aspx