AsianLII and other Legal Information Institutes in the Asia-Pacific:

Assisting Courts and open justice

Graham Greenleaf, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, and Co-Director, AustLII

Philip Chung, Executive Director, AustLII and Lecturer in Law, University of Technology, Sydney

12th Conference of Chief Justices of Asia and the PacificHong Kong SAR, PRC, 4-7 June 2007

Overview of presentation

• Legal Information Institutes - a global movement for free access to law– LIIs in the Asia-Pacific– Demonstration of AustLII as an example

• The Asian Legal Information Institute – Free access to law from 28 countries/jurisdictions– Demonstration of AsianLII– Future development priorities

• ‘Final Appeal Courts’ and the LIIs– Facilities for comparative searches of highest Court

decisions, in Asia, the Pacific and globally– Methods for most effective LII publication of Court decisions

What is a Legal Information Institute (LII)?

• Provides free and non-profit online access • Publishes multi-sourced legal resources

– Collections, not just its own cases or legislation

• Is independent of governments• May be national, regional, language-based, or global

The Free Access to Law Movement is an association of LIIs with a Declaration of principles.

The LIIs of the Asia-Pacific

CanLII - Canada LII:Cornell - US Federal

AustLII - Australia NZLII - New Zealand

PacLII: 20 Pacific Island

states (including PNG)

HKLII - Hong Kong

AsianLII - 26 other Asian jurisdictions

New LIIs emerging - eg LawPhil (Philippines)

The global structure of LIIs

LIIs in the Asia-Pacific

AsianLII-26 Asian jurns-

HKLII- Hong Kong-

AustLII- Australia -

PacLII-20 Pacific jurns-

NZLII- New Zealand -

CanLII- Canada-

LII (Cornell)- US Federal -

LIIs outside the Asia-Pacific

SAFLII- 18 countries in S&E Africa -

CommonLII- 54 Commonwealth countries -

WorldLII- All LIIs & International law -

Droit Francophone- 20 francophone countries -

BAILII- UK & Ireland -

Juri Burkina- Burkina Faso -

CyLaw- Cyprus -

Who operates LIIs?

• Universities, as public service– LII (Cornell) PacLII, HKLII, AustLII, NZLII, LawPhil– AsianLII, Droit Francophone, CommonLII, WorldLII, jointly for LIIs

• A non-profit Trust / Foundation (NGOs)– BAILII (BAILII Trust members are from Courts, Universities, Legal

Profession)– SAFLII (South African Constitutional Court Trust members are from Courts,

Universities etc; mandate to publish decisions from Chief Justices of Southern and Eastern African countries)

• The Legal Profession, as professional & public services– CanLII (Law Societies of Canada with a University)– Juri Burkina– CyLaw

Example - AustLII

• Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)• In operation 12 years since 1995• Free-access, non-profit service by 2 Australian Law Faculties (UTS &

UNSW)• 252 databases of Australian law• 650,000 accesses per day• AustLII has its own search engine and mark-up software• Since 2000, AustLII has used its software and expertise to assist the

development of free access to law in other countries

• AsianLII is the most recent example of AustLII’s mission to develop free access to law internationally

Developing AsianLII:Why an Asia-wide law portal?

• There is no existing Asia-wide system for comparative legal research - contrast the Pacific, Australasia and N.America

• Differences reducing between diverse legal systems• Increasing hybridisation of influences on reform• Harmonisation of influences of international agreements• Increased transparency to outside world: donors, WTO etc• Transparency internally supports the rule of law• English as the most common language for law in Asia, despite

linguistic diversity; most common language for translations• Asia-wide issues such as Islamic law, trade law,environment

Conclusion: Build an Asia-wide portal, initially in English, then add other regional and national languages

<http://www.asianlii.org>

What content is on AsianLII?

• Databases - Now 146 from 27/28 Asian countries• Legislation - Over 15,000 Acts and Regulations

– Legislation from 18 countries/jurisdictions– Plus Constitutions from 14 countries, others being added

• Case law - Over 150,000 cases from 17 countries– Also decisions of international courts re Asian countries Mainly

full text but some are English summaries

• Law reform - reports from 7 countries and ADB• Law Journals - 4 Asian law journals + 600 articles

– Offer to include journals from any Asian law school

• Treaties/Agreements - Numerous bilateral treaties, plus regional agreements (APEC, ASEAN, SAARC)

AsianLII basics

• Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII)• Launched in December 2006 • Now 146 databases from 27/28 Asian countries• Over 50,000 page accesses per working day• Free access to anyone in the world

– Non-profit operation by AustLII from Sydney

Obtaining Court decisions for AsianLII

• All decisions included so far are already published by the Courts on the Internet for free access, or provided by the Court– Courts have indicated these decisions are appropriate to publish

• Survey of copyright laws in Asian jurisdictions concerning copyright in legislation and case law – With few exceptions, no copyright in decisions or legislation– Often no copyright in translations provided by official bodies– Laws of Asian countries strongly support free access to law– Permission to republish is generally otherwise available

• Most decisions are obtained from Court websites– Periodic updating depending on AustLII staff resources

• If Courts can email decisions, updating is automatic– Decisions can be published on AsianLII on the same day– AustLII offers this facility to all Final Appeal Courts in Asia

Features of Court decisions on AsianLII

• All decisions are put into a standard format• A standard citation method is used for all decisions

– [YEAR] Court_designator Decision_number – eg [2007] SGSC 1 - first 2007 decision of Singapore’s Supreme Court– Pioneered by High Court of Australia from 1998, now adopted by many

Courts (eg UK Courts, Singapore, S&E Africa) and LIIs

• Where possible, automatic insertion of hypertext links to legislation cited, and sometimes to other cases cited

• Very flexible case search facilities– All cases from all countries can be searched together– Special search facility for decisions of Final Appeal Courts only– All decisions from a country (and other content) can be searched together– The decisions of each Court can be searched separately

• Search results can be ordered by relevance or by date of decision• Decisions provided by email can be published on the same day

Final Appeal Courts on LIIs

• Final Appeal Courts on AsianLII: – 20 ‘Final Appeal Courts’ (Supreme Courts or Constitutional Courts)

from 13 countries/jurisdictions– Largest numbers of decisions are from the SC of India 1950- (21,642),

CA of Hong Kong 1946- (11,744); CA of the Philippines 2004- (11,572), CA Sri Lanka 1809- (7,285), SC of Papua New Guinea 1976- (3,230), Tribunal da Segunda Instância de Macau 2002- (1,521), and SC of Japan 1950- (867)

• Final Appeal Courts on other LIIs:– At least 30 ‘Final Appeal Courts’, most from the Pacific and Africa– Largest numbers of decisions are from the HC of Australia 1903

(7,124), SC of Canada 1985- (2,427), SC of the United States, UK House of Lords, SC of Ireland, SC of South Africa 1999- (1,110) and CA Fiji 1959 (983)

• WorldLII allows all 50 Final Appeal Courts to be searched together – More Final Appeal Courts will be added as LIIs expand globally

Technical advantages

• Own software – AustLII search engine and HTML mark-up– Tested over 12 years on AustLII and other LIIs

• Search scope flexibility– over all 135+ databases together– over all content from only one country– Comparative law searches over legislation (or case law etc)

from all countries:

Technical advantages (2)

• Flexible display of results– In default, sorted by likely relevance

– Can sort by date (eg most recent cases first)

– Can view by databases satisfying the search

Technical advantages (3)

• Automated hypertext linking and ‘noteups’– Links to legislation and case from wherever they are mentioned– Go to a piece of legislation and ‘note it up’ to find all cases or articles

considering it– Links are inserted by automated processes

• Example: Extract from Mahkamah Agung case (PT. COMARINDO EXPRES TAMA TOUR & TRAVEL v YEMEN AIRWAYS [2005] IDSC 1 (28 January 2005))

Who is involved in AsianLII?

• Operations - operated by AustLII (UTS & UNSW)• Collaborating LIIs - HKLII and PacLII (re PNG)

– AsianLII is also part of WorldLII, and overlaps CommonLII– All part of the global Free Access to Law Movement

• Country supporting institutions - from 6 countries– Some will develop into separate new LIIs– Courts are welcome to become CSIs

• Regional supporting institutions - APEC SELI; ADB; LAWASIA; Inter-Pacific Bar Assoc.; IDLO

• Funding - AusAID; Aust. A-Gs– Sufficient for 2 staff plus infrastructure

Future development of AsianLII

• Expand databases for all 28 countries– Add databases in languages other than English, if browsable

• Search engine - extension to Asian languages– Bahasa Indonesian/Malay and Portuguese already – first priority Chinese (assisted by HKLII) and Vietnamese– then Thai/Khymer/Lao (AusAID funding assists)

• New independent LIIs (Legal Information Institutes)– Re-developed LawPhil (Philippines) will be first– Aim to assist new LIIs to develop in any Asian country by providing

search engine and technical assistance – Local control coupled with regional and global integration and

international best practice– Only funded as yet to assist in six countries; will seek funding to

work in other countries where there is interest

An Invitation to Final Appeal Courts in Asia

1. All Final Appeal Courts are invited to have their decisions published on AsianLII, if they are not already included.

Please contact us to discuss how this can be done.Titles of decisions in English may be needed.

2. All Final Appeal Courts are invited to have their decisions published on AsianLII on the same day as they are delivered, by email to AustLII.

Please contact us to discuss the email procedures.

3. There is no charge to Courts, and access by users is free

Contact details:Professor Graham Greenleaf, Co-Director <graham@austlii.edu.au>Philip Chung, Executive Director <philip@austlii.edu.au>