Legal Research

Law.Gov Moving Ahead

By Michael Lines

We haven’t seen an update on Carl Malamud’s Law.gov project in quite a while. There is much to report. To start, here’s a reminder of what the project is about:

Law.Gov is an idea, an idea that the primary legal materials of the United States should be readily available to all, and that governmental institutions should make these materials available in bulk as distributed, authenticated, well-formatted data. To make this idea a reality, a series of workshops were held throughout the country, resulting in a consensus on 10 core principles.

In June the project completed its consultation phase, which included workshops at 15 US campuses, and attracted about 650 law librarians, law professors, government officials, judges, and legal information industry representatives. Law.Gov then published the 10 broad principles that came out of the consultations.

1. Direct fees for dissemination of primary legal materials should be avoided.
2. Limitations on access through terms of use or the assertion of copyright on primary legal materials is contrary to long-standing public policy and core democratic principles and is misleading to citizens.
3. Primary legal materials should be made available using bulk access mechanisms so they may be downloaded by anyone.
4. The primary legal materials, and the methods used to access them, should be authenticated so people can trust in the integrity of these materials.
5. Historical archives should be made available online and in a static location to the extent possible.
6. Vendor- and media-neutral citation mechanisms should be employed.
7. Technical standards for document structure, identifiers, and metadata should be developed and applied as extensively as possible.
8. Data should be distributed in a computer-processable, non-proprietary form in a manner that meets best current
   practices for the distribution of open government data. That data should represent the definitive documents, not just aggregate, preliminary, or modified forms.
9. An active program of research and development should be sponsored by governmental bodies that issue primary legal materials to develop new standards and solutions to challenges presented by the electronic distribution of definitive primary legal materials. Examples include the automated detection and redaction of private personal information in documents.
10. An active program of education, training, and documentation should be undertaken to help governmental bodies that issue primary legal materials learn and use best current practices

.

Lexis-Nexis, for one, does not see the initiative as a threat:

We do not see the initiative as a threat because at LexisNexis we deliver comprehensive analysis and innovative technologies that add value far beyond simply providing content — all helping to legal professionals efficiently and confidently make decisions and manage their legal issues.

At the same time, and still ongoing, Malamud coordinated 195 volunteers to help create a National Inventory of Legal Materials, which

surveys of the status of legal materials throughout the country. [The surveys look] especially for potential problems such as pay walls or copyright assertions.

More recently, various courts and government in the US have asked Malamud for a report of the consultations, and his response was to seek submissions from participants, offering $5000 for the best written and video submissions. As source material, he has made video footage of the workshops, and other materials, available online. Deadline is next May 31.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on November 19, 2010 (boomark / email).