¹ See discussions infra Section D.II.5 (discussing the remedy for the injustice from the ignorantia juris doctrine); Section D.II.6 (discussing the numerous benefits from adequate public access to legal information); Section D.II.8 (discussing the global promotion of the rule of law).Google Scholar

² The Latin maxim is ignorantia juris non excusat (“ignorance of the law is no excuse”) or ignorantia juris neminem excusat (“ignorance of the law excuses no one”).Google Scholar

³ Rex v. Bailey (1800) 168 Eng. Rep. 651 (Eng.) (holding that a sailor at sea who had no way of knowing of a new law was guilty under it).Google Scholar

⁴ United States v. Casson, 434 F.2d 415 (D.C. Cir. 1970) (holding that an amending legislation enacted just about six hours before the accused person committed a federal crime was applicable to him, even though it was obvious that people could not have known of the existence of the law and its contents within such a short period).Google Scholar

⁵ Jeremy Bentham & John Bowring, The Works of Jeremy Bentham 547 (1843); see Griswold, Erwin N., Government in Ignorance of the Law—A Plea for Better Publication of Executive Legislation, 48 Harv. L. Rev. 198 (1934) (discussing inaccessibility of regulations in the light of Bentham's quote on the injustice in liability for contravening them).Google Scholar

⁶ Regina v. Chambers [2008] EWCA (Crim) 2467 [55]–[76] (UK), http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2008/2467.html (revealing that previous decisions of the England and Wales Court of Appeal over a period of seven years were based on a repealed regulation that neither the Court nor the lawyers that appeared before it knew of).Google Scholar

⁷ See Chambers Review: Review of Confiscation Orders in Tobacco Cases, The Crown Prosecution Serv., http://cps.gov.uk/publications/others/chambers_review.html (last visited July 6, 2017) [hereinafter Chambers Review].Google Scholar

⁸ See discussion infra Part B (arguing that a lack of political will hinders public access to legal information).Google Scholar

⁹ See id. Google Scholar

¹⁰ See discussion infra Part D.I (discussing the existing literature on the right of public access to legal information as a human right).Google Scholar

¹¹ For example, persons with disabilities need alternate legal information formats. See discussion infra Section D.III.2.11 (discussing the alternate formats for equal access by persons with disabilities).Google Scholar

¹² For an explanation of the elements in this definition, see discussion infra Part C (defining the “right of public access to legal information”).Google Scholar

¹³ See Am. Ass'n of Law Libr., State-By-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources: Executive Summary 2 (Mar. 2007), http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Government-Relations/authen_rprt/executivesummaryreport.pdf (“An authentic text is one whose content has been verified by a government entity to be complete and unaltered when compared to the version approved or published by the content originator”). Authentication of digital legal information is vital to its integrity. See The IALL International Handbook of Legal Information Management 14 (Danner, Richard A. & Jules Winterton eds., 2016); see also infra Section D.III.2.3 (discussing integrity and authoritativeness of legal information). See generally Germain, Claire M., Worldwide Access to Foreign Law: International & National Developments Toward Digital Authentication 1–2 (University of Florida Levin College of Law Working Papers No. 1, 2012), http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=working.Google Scholar

¹⁴ See Am. Ass'n of Law Libr., supra note 13 (“An official version of regulatory materials, statutes, session laws, or court opinions is one that has been governmentally mandated or approved by statute or rule. It might be produced by the government, but does not have to be”).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, Public Access to Legislation and Its Inherent Human Rights: A Comparative Study of the United Kingdom and Nigeria (June 2006) (unpublished LLM dissertation, University of Huddersfield).Google Scholar

¹⁶ For example, LexUM provides affordable industry-standard products and services for the management and dissemination of legal information. See Our Company, LexUM, https://lexum.com/en/about-us (last visited July 6, 2017).Google Scholar

¹⁷ See Poulin, Daniel, Open Access to Law in Developing Countries, 9(12) First Monday (2004), http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1193/1113 (stating that “electronic distribution is the least expensive means of publishing” legal information and discussing its feasibility and the use of open source software); discussions infra Part B (arguing that lack of political will hinders public access to legal information); Section C.III (discussing the use of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility); Section D.III.2.1 (arguing that provision of free public access to legal information online is indispensable); see also Greenleaf, Graham, Legal Information Institutes and the Free Access to Law Movement, GlobaLex (2008), http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Legal_Information_Institutes.html (stating that the World Wide Web provides “a low cost distribution mechanism” for free online access to legal information).Google Scholar

¹⁸ See Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship of 2009 (Feb. 11, 2009), https://cyber.law.harvard.edu/publications/durhamstatement#statement [hereinafter Durham Statement].Google Scholar

¹⁹ See id.; discussion infra Section C.III (discussing the use of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility).Google Scholar

²⁰ See Perritt, Henry H., Jr. & Lhulier, Christopher J., Information Access Rights Based on International Human Rights Law, 45 Buff. L. Rev. 899, 900–01 (1997) (discussing the reluctance of some governments to provide electronic access to their legal information); Judith Bannister, Open Access to Legal Sources in Australasia: Current Debate on Crown Copyright and the Case of the Anthropomorphic Postbox, 3 JILT (1996), http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/1996_3/bannister (discussing the importance of “the will and cooperation of the institutions which produce the primary sources”); Marc Masson & Ovais Tahir, The Legal Information Needs of Civil Society in Zambia, 4 JOAL 18 (2016), https://ojs.law.cornell.edu/index.php/joal/article/view/45/61 (stating that the Zambian Government Printer officially responsible for publishing legal information explained that they could not publish its electronic version online because they lacked the statutory mandate to do so).Google Scholar

²¹ In 2014, Nigeria's US$568,508 million Gross Domestic Product was ranked twenty-second in the world and number one in Africa, followed by South Africa and Egypt. See Bank, The World, Gross domestic product 1 2014, http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf.Google Scholar

²² For example, the website of Nigeria's federal legislature, the National Assembly, contains only principal legislation made between 1999 and the present and Bills of the same period, yet Nigerian federal legislation in force spans a long period of more than 100 years (1914–2016). See Fed. Republic of Nigeria Nat'l Assembly, http://www.nassnig.org/document/acts (last visited July 6, 2017). I had previously suggested that the reluctance of the Nigerian federal government to provide online access to its public information must have led to the late launch of its first website in 2005. See Mitee, supra note 15, at 102.Google Scholar

²³ See Bayly, Vallery, Legal Information and Human Rights, McGill Univ. (July 31, 2015, 11:16 AM), http://blogs.mcgill.ca/humanrightsinterns/2015/07/31/legal-information-and-human-rights/.Google Scholar

²⁴ For express statements that the UK legislation online database is neither comprehensive nor up-to-date, see Help: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Legislation.gov.uk, http://www.legislation.gov.uk/help#aboutRevDate (last visited July 6, 2017); The Nat'l Archives, Guide to Revised Legislation on Legislation.gov.uk 6–7 (Oct. 2013), http://www.legislation.gov.uk/pdfs/GuideToRevisedLegislation_Oct_2013.pdf.Google Scholar

²⁵ TISL Encouraged by Enactment of RTI in Sri Lanka, Transparency Int‘l Sri Lanka (July 11, 2016), http://www.tisrilanka.org/tisl-encouraged-by-enactment-of-rti-in-sri-lanka/; 3.1 – Information management and Access Laws for the 21st Century, Open Gov‘t Partnership Australia (Oct. 10, 2017), https://ogpau.pmc.gov.au/commitment/31-information-management-and-access-laws-21st-century. See discussion infra Section C.I (discussing the existence of the right of public access to legal information under the general right of access to public or government-held information).Google Scholar

²⁶ Carroll, Michael W., The Movement for Open Access Law, 10 LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. 741, 746 (2006) (discussing free access to legal information).Google Scholar

²⁷ See Neil, Martha, Georgia Sues Carl Malamud Group, Calls Publishing State's Annotated Code of Laws Online Unlawful, ABAJournal.com (July 24, 2015, 2:10 PM), http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/State_of_Georgia_sues_Carl_Malamud_says_he_published_its_annotated_code_of; Michael Hiltzik, Georgia Claims that Publishing its State Laws for Free Online is “Terrorism,” L.A. Times (July 27, 2015, 12:31 PM), http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-state-of-georgia-copyright-wall-20150727-column.html.Google Scholar

²⁸ See Tom McMahon, Improving Access to the Law in Canada with Digital Media, 16 Government Information in Canada (Mar. 1999), http://www.usask.ca/library/gic/16/mcmahon.html. Many governments monopolize the provision of access to legal information as a means of generating revenue. See Perritt, supra note 20, at 900–01.Google Scholar

²⁹ See Grube, Nick, Many States Charge Insane Fees for Access to Public Records, Huffington Post (Oct. 17, 2013, 8:49 PM), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/17/fees-for-public-records_n_4119049.html.Google Scholar

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³¹ Public.Resource.Org, https://public.resource.org/index.html (last visited July 6, 2017).Google Scholar

³² See The EnAct System, Tasmanian Legis., http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/about/enact.w3p (last visited July 6, 2017); Timothy Arnold-Moore & Jane Clemes, Connected to the Law: Tasmanian Legislation Using EnAct, JILT (2000), https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2000_1/arnold/. Legal information websites “may start small and simple” and progress to use “sound technology” for enhanced accessibility. See Poulin, supra note 17.Google Scholar

³³ See discussion infra Section D.II.8 (discussing global promotion of the rule of law).Google Scholar

³⁴ See Santoso, Benny, “Just Business”—Is the Current Regulatory Framework an Adequate Solution to Human Rights Abuses by Transnational Corporations?, 18 German L.J. 533, 540–41 (2017) (“Enforcement, including compensation, builds on jurisprudence that includes enforceability in the definition of legal rights.”). For discussions of the concept of legal rights, see generally Raz, J., Legal Rights, 4 Legal, Oxford J. Stud. 1–21 (1984); Coleman, Jules L. & Jody Kraus, Rethinking the Theory of Legal Rights, 95 Yale L.J. 1335–72 (1986).Google Scholar

³⁵ This term encompasses human beings who have attained the age of legal responsibility, and who have the capacity to read and understand the texts of the law, as well as corporate organizations.Google Scholar

³⁶ “Laws and law-related publications” refers to primary legislation, secondary legislation, court decisions, international legal instruments, administrative memoranda, bills and other public documents directly related to the law-making function of the legislature (for example, debates and public hearings), reports on legal matters (for example, white papers and commissions of inquiry reports), and value-added publications that aid understanding and navigation of laws (for example, annotations, summaries, indexes, and digests). The oral or unwritten customary law of indigenous communities is inaccessible and unreliable. It should therefore be recorded in a written form in a manner—and through a process—that conforms to human rights and the specific rights of indigenous peoples. See discussion infra Section D.III.2.12 (discussing public access to the customary law of indigenous communities). For my discussion of my new concept of human rights-compliant public access to the customary law of indigenous communities, see Mitee, Leesi Ebenezer, Huricompatisation: The Concept of Human Rights-Compliant Public Access to the Customary Law of Indigenous Communities (forthcoming 2017).Google Scholar

³⁷ “Legislative jurisdiction” refers to the geographical area under a particular legislature (national, state, or local).Google Scholar

³⁸ See supra notes 26–27 and accompanying text discussing the assertion of copyright in official annotations in legislation in the United States.Google Scholar

³⁹ See discussion infra Section D.III.2.11 (discussing alternate formats for equal access by persons with disabilities).Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Memorandum on Transparency and Open Gov't from Barack Obama, the President of the U.S., to the Heads of Exec. Dep'ts and Agencies (Jan. 21, 2009), https://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/TransparencyandOpenGovernment & https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-12.pdf.Google Scholar

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⁴³ See Mitee, supra note 15, at 168.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Deaton v. Kidd, 932 S.W.2d 804, 806 (Mo. Ct. App. 1996).Google Scholar

⁴⁵ See, e.g., Freedom of Information Act 2000, c. 36, §§ 21–44 (UK) (the numerous types of exempt information that cannot be accessed under the Act).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ This Act is one of the four fundamental laws that comprise the Swedish Constitution. Tryckfrihetsförordningen [TF] [Constitution] 2:1 (Swed.) (Dec. 16, 2016), http://www.riksdagen.se/en/How-the-Riksdag-works/Democracy/The-Constitution/.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ Deaton, 932 S.W.2d. For the facts of this case, see infra text accompanying note 100.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ For the meaning of reactive and proactive disclosures, see Address by the Interim Information Commissioner of Canada on Proactive Disclosure Before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, Office of the Info. Comm'r of Can. (Apr. 29, 2010), http://www.oic-ci.gc.ca/eng/pa-ap-appearance-comparution-2010_3.aspx.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ See supra note 13 (discussing authentication). For the specific and technical aspects of an adequate public access to legal information program, see discussion infra Section D.III.2 (discussing contents of the proposed UN Convention).Google Scholar

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²⁷¹ For the meaning and use of plain language, see generally Anthony Watson-Brown, Defining “Plain English” as an Aid to Legal Drafting, 30 Statute L. Rev. 85 (2009).Google Scholar

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²⁷⁵ Fischer, supra note 272, at 142–43. See also Mead, Julia C., Legal Latinisms, Dead or Alive?, N.Y. Times (Jan. 26, 2003), http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/26/nyregion/legal-latinisms-dead-or-alive.html.Google Scholar

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²⁸⁸ The term with its abbreviation is my coinage.Google Scholar

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²⁹⁰ Mary Omogor Ifukor, Channels of Information Acquisition and Dissemination Among Rural Dwellers, 5(10) IJLIS 306, 307 (2013), http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/IJLIS/article-full-text-pdf/494E19F40088 (lasted visited July 8, 2017); Uzuegbu, Chimezie P. & Naga, Moses M., Information Communication to Rural Cassava Farmers in Nigeria: A Pilot Study, 9(2) JAIST (2016), http://jaistonline.org/vol9no2_2016.html (lasted visited July 8, 2017); Henry Kam Kah, Civil Society, Socio-Economic Development and Nation-Building In West Africa, 7(4) AAJOSS (2016), http://www.onlineresearchjournals.com/aajoss/art/220.pdf (lasted visited July 8, 2017).Google Scholar

²⁹¹ Free Internet connectivity should be available in public depository libraries that stock government-held information which includes legal information.Google Scholar

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²⁹⁴ Id. Google Scholar

²⁹⁵ Id. at paras. 78–79. For a discussion on the human right of access to the Internet, see generally Stephen Tully, A Human Right to Access the Internet? Problems and Prospects, 14 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 175 (2014).Google Scholar

²⁹⁶ Tañada v. Tuvera, supra note 59 (“[B]efore the public is bound by its contents, especially its penal provisions, a law, regulation or circular must first be published and the people officially and specially informed of said contents and its penalties.”); Corporation de l'École Polytechnique v. Canada, 2004 FCA 127, para. 39 (CanLII):Google Scholar

Invincible mistake of law, accepted by the courts and Parliament, refers to mistakes which it is impossible to avoid because it is impossible for the person charged to know the law, either because it has not been promulgated or because it was not published in a satisfactory way so that its existence and contents could be known.Google Scholar

(emphasis added).Google Scholar

“[Ig]norance of the law due to its nonpublication must be a credible defence.” See Anyangwe, Carlson, Criminal Law: The General Part 207 (2015). Frans Rumpff, the Chief Justice of South Africa, delivered a revolutionary unanimous judgment in 1977 that abolished the general application of the doctrine of ignorance of the law is no excuse in relation to mens rea in criminal offenses. See State v. De Blom 1977 (3) SA 513 (A) at 529 H (S. Afr.).Google Scholar

²⁹⁷ See Garvey, Stephen P., Authority, Ignorance, and the Guilty Mind, 67 SMU L. Rev. 545, 556 (2014) (conceding that ignorance of the law should not be an excuse with regard to mala in se offenses); see also Cottone, supra note 173, at 143 (asserting the relative ease of public awareness of the unlawfulness of mala in se offenses in contrast with regulatory offenses: “For example, one would be hard-pressed to find a person that never heard of someone going to prison for murder or robbery—the illegality of these acts has been hammered into our collective consciousness.”). The age-old judicial distinction between mala prohibita (evil-because-prohibited) and mala in se (naturally-evil) offenses is established in criminal law. See generally Davis, Mark S., Crimes Mala in Se: An Equity-Based Definition, 17 Crim. Just. Pol'y Rev. 270 (2006); State v. Anderson, 5 P.3d 1247, 141 Wash. 2d 357 (2000); Note, The Distinction between “Mala Prohibita” and “Mala in se” in Criminal Law 30 Colum. L. Rev. 74 (1930). The distinction, despite its imperfection, is necessary for the attainment of justice in special circumstances to prevent avoidance of liability based on my proposed human-right defense of inaccessible and therefore unknowable law. The application of this distinction here is based on accessibility of the law, not on criminal intent—mens rea. Google Scholar

²⁹⁸ See supra Section C.I (discussing the existence of the right of public access to legal information under the general right of access to public or government-held information).Google Scholar

²⁹⁹ See id. Google Scholar

³⁰⁰ See supra Section C.V (discussing judicial recognition and enforcement of the existing right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

³⁰¹ See supra Section C.II (discussing the traditional requirement of publication of legal information).Google Scholar

³⁰² See supra Section C.III (discussing the use of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility).Google Scholar

³⁰³ See supra Section D.II.1 (discussing the normative gaps associated with the existing derivative status).Google Scholar

³⁰⁴ See supra Section C.V (discussing judicial recognition and enforcement of the existing right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

³⁰⁵ See supra notes 21–23 and accompanying text (discussing the poor public access to legal information in Nigeria and Mali).Google Scholar

³⁰⁶ See Douglas-Scott, supra note 138.Google Scholar

³⁰⁷ See Office of the UN High Comm'r for Hum. Rts., supra note 142, at 2–3.Google Scholar

³⁰⁸ See supra Section D.II.2 (detailing the human rights framework for the right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

³⁰⁹ For instance, with regard to the CRPD, there was a period of about seven years between the setting up of its Ad Hoc Committee by the General Assembly in 2001 and when it entered into force on May 3, 2008. See Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Why a Convention?, United Nations (Apr. 21, 2016), http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/questions.shtml#five (providing the background to the Convention that was adopted on Dec. 13, 2006).Google Scholar

³¹⁰ See generally Kingdon, Tony, The Relevance of Research to Policy Formulation: An Australian Perspective, 88 Addiction 61S (Supplement s1, Jan., 1993); Wagenaar, Alexander C., Research Affects Public Policy: The Case of the Legal Drinking Age in the United States, 88 Addiction 75S (Supplement s1, Jan., 1993); Amanda Wolf, Research Strategies for Policy Relevance, 23 Soc. Pol'y J.N.Z. (2004); UNCTAD Virtual Inst. on Trade and Dev., Research-Based Policy Making: Bridging the Gap between Researchers and Policy Makers (Recommendations for Researchers and Policy Makers Arising from the joint UNCTAD-WTO-ITC Workshop on Trade Policy Analysis, Geneva, Sept. 11–15, 2006), https://vi.unctad.org/tda/papers/tradedata/tdarecs.PDF.Google Scholar

³¹¹ See, e.g., supra notes 21–23 (discussing the poor public access to legal information in Nigeria and Mali).Google Scholar

³¹² See supra Part B (discussing the lack of political will hinders public access to legal information).Google Scholar

³¹³ Regina v. Chambers [2008] EWCA (Crim) 2467 (revealing that previous decisions of the England and Wales Court of Appeal over a period of seven years were based on a repealed regulation that neither the Court nor the lawyers that appeared before it knew of).Google Scholar

³¹⁴ Rex v. Bailey (1800) 168 Eng. Rep. 651 (Eng.).Google Scholar

³¹⁵ United States v. Casson, 434 F.2d 415 (D.C. Cir. 1970).Google Scholar

³¹⁶ See supra Section D.III.2.15 (discussing the proposal that there should be no liability under any inaccessible law).Google Scholar

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