The vision

In 2006 Professor Richard Susskind articulated a vision for

a corpus of [UK] law like no other: a resource readily available to lawyers and lay people; a free web of inter-linked materials; packed with scholarly analysis and commentary, supplemented by useful guidance and procedure; rendered intensely practical by the addition of action points and standard documents; and underpinned by direct access to legislation and case law - Times Online, April 2006

FreeLegalWeb subscribes to this vision and aims to realise it.

Is this achievable?

Yes. In part, now; in full, over time. The following factors have now come together, removing most former obstacles and creating a compelling case for developing an initial service.

The law is now much more open

There has recently been a sea change in Government’s attitude to the provision of Public Sector Information (PSI) and the encouragement of user-generated services supporting government. In particular, the independent Power of Information Review recommended changes that have been substantially accepted by Government. Through the Digital Engagement team at the Cabinet Office the Government are now making this happen.

We now have more or less open access to all legislation and most other official documents, forms and guidance from government and a commitment to making these resources more accessible and encouraging user generated services.

To improve service delivery and communication with the public, the Central Office of Information (COI), in partnership with the Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), should coordinate the development of experimental partnerships between major departments and user-generated sites in key policy areas. - Power of Information Review, Recommendation 1
COI welcomes the opportunity to work with OPSI in developing experimental partnerships between user-generated sites and major departments. COI will, on behalf of government departments, and in consultation with policy owners, identify opportunities in this area that may be developed. - Cabinet Office response, accepting Recommendation 1

We have another substantial free (but not open) access primary law database — BAILII. BAILII’s co-operation and contribution is particularly important in respect of case law which is not, under UK law, PSI.

The challenge for FreeLegalWeb is apply web technologies effectively to leverage and add value to these free primary law resources.

Legal knowledge is now much more widely published and shared

Thousands of lawyers are already contributing (online and off-line) for little or no direct reward:

  • articles and guides on their own websites
  • articles for publication in law journals / aggregators
  • specialist wikis
  • articles and updaters on blogs etc
  • contributions to works published by commercial publishers

Why do they do this? In short, for the recognition and the Google juice.

The challenge for FreeLegalWeb is to harness much of this existing content and encourage new and ongoing contributions.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies enable these sources to be repurposed and inter-linked without substantial ongoing centralised hands-on effort.