OpenLaws.eu - access to lawProf. Chris MarsdenLAPSI24 September 2014

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Expanding open innovation to lawIntroducing mass-customization to lawProposing a comprehensive European “Big Open Legal Data” (BOLD) Vision 2020

for incremental implementation, built on top of existing EU and national systems and

content (e.g. EUR-Lex, e-Justice System, e-Codex).

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Developing BOLD ICT PlatformLaunch of:a. dedicated legal EU social networks.b. a hub for open access legal journals. Promote open data, open access publications, and open standards (e.g. ELI, ECLI) in the legal field.

Contribute to Open Innovation Strategy/Policy Group (OISPG)

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Developing big online legal dataFree Access to Law movement (FALM)

online case law via BAILII in the UK Legal Information Institutes (AustLII, Cornell etc.)

#GoodLaw online statutes expanded rapidly, crowdsourcing ideas for #goodlaw

Online legal education and research BILETA since 1985 Electronic Law Journals project at Warwick

EJLT – now Script-ed + IJoC at USC many US law journals

Journal of Open Access to Law (JOAL) est. 2014! publishing books via Creative Commons: Marsden 2010

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Greenleaf (2011, 2012) identifies 6 historic phases to achieve FALM

1. Example set by the LII (Cornell) and LexuM in early 90s 2. AustLII’s 1995 formulation: obligations of official

publishers3. 2002 Declaration on Free Access to Law 4. ‘Guiding Principles’ for States formulated by 2008

expert meeting convened by Hague Conference on Private International Law

5. ‘Law.Gov principles’ developed by Public Resources.org in 2010; and

6. draft Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act recommended in 2011

1. US National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Is your Ministry of Justice ready for (r)evolution?#Goodlaw

radical crowd-sourced legislative approach

Open Data Very fashionable amongst G8 countries etc. Implementation more patchy than general

UK: BAILII and Supreme Court reforms; Society for Computers and Law trying hard

Computers and Law is open – it can be done

But we really need a pan-European approach

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Why not build a smartphone app for lawyers?

Already done using open case law, statute, articles

Where? Austria RIS:App Why not here? Why not everywhere?

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Team – note Andres Guadamuz CC licence expert

Institution Name

UVAmsterdam Prof. Radboud G.F. Winkels

Prof. Mireille van Eechoud LAPSI2.0

Sussex Prof. Chris MarsdenDr Andres Guadamuz CC4.0

London School of Economics

Dr. Paolo DiniDr. Shenja van der Graaf BXLDr. Antonella Passani ROMA

ALPENITE - developers

Giulio MarconGianluigi Alberici

SUAS Prof. Thomas HeistracherDI (FH) Thomas Lampoltshammer

BYWASS Dr. Clemens Wass, MBL, MBA

Report No. D1.2.1 – EU Case StudyVersion 1.0 DRAFT FOR COMMENT NOT ATTRIBUTION

Chris Marsden (Sussex)

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Mapping Open Law

Mapping of stakeholders, processes in legal information

production and consumption levels of regulatory instruments

flows of content, rights, value.

4 Case Studies Assessing barriers to adoption of open

access to legislation, case law, commentary

Developed over 18 months EU Netherlands UK Austria Final synthesis report on BOLD

EU first draft case study European institutions' provision of free

access to European Union law, cases, legislation, regulation, academic-

expert analysis. Month 4, contingent; will be revised. Key functionalities of existing legal

publishing system are summarized and described.

Case studies: key socio-economic & legal aspects

Illustrate main functionalities, structure & operation. analysis of social, legal and market

requirements. informed by key informant interviews. supported by literature review of existing

information systems legal databases (M6), workshops (including LASPSI2 workshop)

Breadth of stakeholders interviewed is broadExperts from: Academia, Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPB),

trading funds, private entrepreneurs, corporations, standards bodies, non-governmental organizations and government policy officials with both domestic

and international responsibilities.

Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) framework identify the key components of the problem provide key specifications for system to be built, combination of

desk research, in-depth interviews, and focus groups.

Rich multimedia flowcharts and other illustrative material will be used in further drafts to describe problem in context of SSM approach to facilitate discussion between user and development

communities.

Publication of draft case studies & final comparative report dissemination and feedback mechanisms both on-line

(e.g. via open access websites, promotion via social media and comment promotion)

offline (via workshops and conferences) to create a close expert panel

constructive critique for future iterations of reports, final version published M24 conclusion of project.

CAMPOAdaptation of standard socio-legal framework Context

Environment of community/organisation/market Actors

Publishers, official document providers, users Methodology

Including both open and closed access Practices

Including user experience, litigation/regulation Outcomes

Including market, regulatory reform

CAMPO Description Added valueContext Initial part of the case study outlines the

overall context in which the community emerges/operates - type of legal informatics technology Systematic catalogue

of cases/actors/issuesActors What type of community is observed

(primary groups, market actors, user groups etc.)

Methods Investigation method: Details of procedures to map the case study and the techniques used to perform analysis (research design details + actual methods)

Catalogue of methodological approaches to investigate different communities

Practices Dynamics of interaction: Illustration of dynamics observed in each case study

Detailed insights on interplay

Outcomes

Summary of integration at EC level Conclusions, limits of analysis for member states

CAMPO DescriptionContext Programme of observation with legal community and

developers.Actors Office of Official Publications; EurLEX unit

Various regulator websites DG Justice

Multinational legal publishers (member state based –analysis in country case studies)

No Legal Information Institute for EU, start-up (EuroLII) in process.

Commentary provided by Brussels affiliates of international law firms + European law academics based in national universities

Methods Significant methodology challenges to researching this ‘community’, if European law can be said to have created a single community, as opposed to enabling several communities at national level with European coordination or at least input.

Relatively little academic empirical study of European legal informatics, until recently.

Ethical implications similar problems as national legal communities.

Practices Research conclusions must be provisional and transient.Outcomes

Further research needed to solve methodology problems for exploring environment.

European legal data born open: 1958 Official Journal policy Resources devoted to multi-lingual and multi-

national publication. development – and now redevelopment – of EUR-Lex

and efforts to integrate with national databases via N-Lex and now EUCases.

boosted by the stronger political commitment to open data in Commissioner Kroes’ Digital Agenda and the European Council October 2013 conclusions which contain a strong endorsement of open data, linked to the revised Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive.

This is shared by other major legal systems and governments’ wider commitments to open data, for instance the June ’13 G8 Open Data Charter.

European legal informatics space seems unique in at least seven respects

compared to our three country case studies.

1. Unprecedented multilingual economic and political area 4 original languages (French, German, Dutch,

Italian) precedent setting ‘Supreme Court’ worked in

French. The decision to make access to documentation

freely available at production and then no charge context of no developed market actors to challenge ‘super-nationalised’ state provision of

legal information and case law reportage.

2. The essential role of European law in creating the ‘acquis communitaire’

Political decision to make law widely available at below marginal cost To critical mass of advocates at national levels no serious resistance beyond budgetary

questions. comparison with bi-lingual European Court

of Human Rights presentation of case law, rather than national court systems.

Note linguistic diversity of EU and severe budgetary constraints of the ECHR system.

3. European law was pushing on an open policy door expansion occurred at the same time as

a massive expansion in European institutional competences and budget.

boom-bust cycle of many national legal reporting environments

far longer and more crisis-ridden history not an EU feature of resistance to wider

access to law.

4. EU law expanded rapidly concurrently with legal informatics Throughout the 1980s and onwards, development of EU law and legal databases

has been a largely happy marriage though with various standards-based and

institutional strains inevitable in system growing at rapid rate.

5. European precedent for national law leading to recognition of its power to influence

national legislation not only in its legal effect

salutary example of free access to the over-arching law in so many national legal fields.

European law is an example to national legislatures, courts and commentators.

The use of judgments as precedent setting has parallels with the ECHR system and also national common law systems with Supreme Courts, such as England and the United States.

6. European court decisions and legislative reforms now affect 28 nations

Importance of effective communication of changes is evident (arguably more powerfully)

United States Supreme Court decisions have ‘ripple’ effects at state, municipal and regional levels in United States. Examples in the field of information law include the

‘Right to be Forgotten’ (sic) case of Google v. Spain (2014) , and Digital Rights Ire-land (2014) ,

which were the subjects of enormous immediate commentary at European and national levels.

7. Commentary: Law firms in Brussels and Luxembourg enormously well resourced

compared to national level in all but the largest jurisdictions.

case commentary is frequently rapidly and comprehensively supplied freely ‘loss leader’ to attract both national and

non-European clients to use the services of these highly

competent and highly marketed law firms.

Federal exception that proves the national rule Is European legal data so open to reuse and

access: ‘exception that proves the rule’? national systems hampered by legacies of

closed and restrictively licensed underfunded systems.

This will be a major research theme in national case studies.

European legal information not as widely reused and repurposed as US federal law, best of breed example to emulate where possible?

c.marsden@sussex.ac.uk @openlaws@ChrisTMarsden www.openlaws.eu