Conference: Institute boasts 466 databases from 51 countries and a catalogue of thousands of links to legal sites

A database providing free on-line legal information to all Commonwealth countries was launched at the Commonwealth Law Conference in London earlier this month.


The Commonwealth Legal Information Institute (CommonLII) enables lawyers to search core legal information from all 53 countries from one Web site.


The site - www.commonlii.org - provides free access to case law, legislation, treaties, law journals and law reform reports. It already includes 466 databases from 51 Commonwealth countries and a catalogue of thousands of links to legal Web sites, plus a search engine that enables the content to be sifted and the results sorted by relevance, date order or by database.


CommonLII, with the assistance of the Free Access to Law Movement, will also work with local partners in helping Commonwealth countries to build their country's databases into separate, independent and long-lasting information institutes.


The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) is leading the CommonLII initiative, with initial funding from the Australian Attorney-General's Department and the Australian Research Council.


AustLII is a non-profit joint facility of the Faculties of Law at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Technology, Sydney. It has in the past assisted with the creation of similar legal information institutes around the world, including the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII), founded in 1999.


AustLII also operates the World Legal Information Institute - the Internet's largest free access law service, which was launched last year.


Professor Graham Greenleaf, a professor of law at the UNSW and co-founder and co-director of AustLII and CommonLII, said: 'The wider purpose of CommonLII is threefold: to assist the development of a more international common law, to develop free access to law from all Commonwealth countries, and to support the rule of law across the Commonwealth, by making each country's legal system more transparent.'


He added that greater transparency would support international trade and investment within the Commonwealth.


Meanwhile, the Law Society Charity has awarded a £60,000 grant to BAILII to develop its free legal materials database, which already comprises 400,000 searchable documents and 15 million internal hypertext links.


Kevin Martin, Law Society President, said: 'This donation continues solicitors' proud tradition of giving financial assistance to those in need. It will improve legal education by providing free access to British and Irish primary legal materials.'



Links: www.commonlii.org

www.bailii.org