The Australasian Legal Institute
AustLII is a real time law report and speech service presenting cases from Australian courts and tribunals.
An initiative of Andrew Mowbray of the University of Technology Sydney , and Professor Graham Greenleaf of the University of New South Wales . Housed at the University of Technology Law School, AustLII has a very small number of staff who are in the process of putting all the law up on the Internet.
It would seem a fundamental right in a democracy for citizens to be able to read the law. After all, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Hitherto, our case and statute law was available only to those rich enough to subscribe to expensive services, or to those with the time to compete with students for the few copies in public libraries. Now, all Australians and, incidentally, foreigners (18 percent of users are based overseas) have used the service available to them.
In no other country is the law so freely and readily available. In the United States , private providers charge for this service - a search can be beyond the means of an ordinary citizen.
Making the law freely available to the people is of far more importance than some of the better known proposals to change our constitution. It is of revolutionary importance. AustLII is now the world's largest free provider of access to the law.
You can search it at http://www.austlii.edu.au
Additionally, The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's Reconciliation and Society Justice Library is on the site.
Author: Professor David Flint, Press Council News
http://www.presscouncil.org.au
For further information please send us an email at info@shelco.com.au or call us at 1800 002 605.