Open Law Project Presentation

Tyrannical legal publishers

Problem ...

Legal publishers hold the market to ransom.

Legal reference works

are

too

expensive!

This means ...

the law is

inaccessible

to most people.

(It also doesn’t help that these same legal reference works

sometimes confuse lawyers too)

So what?

People like this guy fall through the

cracks.

Open access to the law is a right

“Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law.”

“Everyone has the right of access to any information held by the state.”

“Everyone has the right to have any dispute that can be resolved by the application of law decided in a fair public hearing before a court or, where appropriate, another independent and impartial tribunal or forum.”

Charging exorbitant fees for primary legal materials denies access to the law to the vast majority of the population

Primary legal resources should be made freely available and the tools to build

upon those materials

Declaration on Free Access to Law

Public legal information from all countries and international institutions is part of the common heritage of humanity. Maximising access to this information promotes justice and the rule of law;

Public legal information is digital common property and should be accessible to all on a non-profit basis and free of charge;

Independent non-profit organisations have the right to publish public legal information and the government bodies that create or control that information should provide access to it so that it can be published.

Then again, legal reference works don’t exactly grow on trees ...

Everyone

is an expert

in something ...

... including the law

So why not ...

Harness the wisdom of the crowd

How?

Does it work?

2,187,032 articles in English (22/01/2008)

Accuracy comparable to Britannica

Entirely community driven

Why not do the same thing for SA law?

Open Law Project

Professional community involvement

Academic community involvement

Collaborations

Federated approach to legal materials;

Smart partnerships;

Free access;

Open licensing ...

The end result ...

Open access to the law

for everyone

(not just the smart, wealthy lawyers)

A solution:

The Open Law Project

openlaw.wikia.com

Paul Jacobson

paul.myplaxo.com

paul@openlawproject.org

083 444 8260

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