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Planning a Legal Information Institute in the south of Africa

Planning a Legal Information Institute in the south of Africa. John Montgomery School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa montgomeryj@law.wits.ac.za. Background. The Wits Laws School website was started by Professor Iain Currie in the mid-90s.

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Planning a Legal Information Institute in the south of Africa

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  1. Planning a Legal Information Institute in the south of Africa John Montgomery School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa montgomeryj@law.wits.ac.za

  2. Background • The Wits Laws School website was started by Professor Iain Currie in the mid-90s. • The philosophy behind the website is that primary legal documents such as court judgments should be made freely available to as many as possible. • The website has become a recognised South African portal. • url: www.law.wits.ac.za

  3. Legal information offered on the site • All the judgments of the Constitutional Court since inception. • Supporting documents for certain Constitutional Court judgment e.g. affidavits. • All the judgments of the Land Claims Court since inception. • Supreme Court of Appeal judgments since the mid-90s. • South African Law Commission reports, many of which have online questionnaires.

  4. Modus operandi • Receive judgment from court via email attachment. • Enter details into a database-to-web programme. • Create static webpage. • FTP judgment (e.g. MSWord doc) to website. • Update home page and send out listserv notification.

  5. Future plans • Revamp the database using mysql/php/xml with some perl scripting. • In this regard Cornell Law School have generously offered their know-how. • Link up with Worldlii as an additional way of increasing traffic. • Once this is up and running, invite other courts or southern African countries to join.

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