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Sustaining the Open-Access Regime through the Legal Information Institutes: A Success Story

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Bamgbose Oludayo John  and
Omidiji Temiloluwa
Bamgbose Oludayo John
Affiliation:
Oludayo John Bamgbose is a PhD researcher, Senior Law Librarian at Ajayi Crowther University, Nigeria, and President of the Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals (AfLLIP). He was also a Bitner Research Fellow at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The author is grateful to Professors Femi Cadmus and Amy Emerson, both formerly of the Cornell Law Library. He is equally grateful to the Cornell Law Library for shortlisting him as a Bitner Research Fellow and for the associated opportunity to visit the Cornell Library and Information Institute (Cornell LII). He is also grateful to Mariya Badeva, Director of the African Legal Information Institute (AfricanLII).
Omidiji Temiloluwa
Affiliation:
Temiloluwa Omidiji, a Barrister and Solicitor in the Supreme Court of Nigeria, is the Law Librarian of Redeemers University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria.
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Abstract

In the past decade, the provision of open access to legal information has experienced unprecedented improvement. One of the recent additions to the open-access regime is the introduction of Legal Information Institutes (LIIs) that provide access to important information contained in government gazettes, reports, judicial decisions, and statutory instruments. As important as LIIs are for enhancing legal research, a perusal of the relevant literature reveals that there is generally a dearth about LIIs.

Against this background, this article examines the LIIs’ contribution to legal information to determine how to strengthen LIIs in terms of their content and viability.

Keywords

SustainabilityLegal InformationLegal Information InstitutesLIIsLegal Research
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , Summer 2024 , pp. 147 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by International Association of Law Libraries

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23 The opportunity for a quick update is a plus, considering that law itself is dynamic and may change rapidly over a period of time. Such updates are quickly and easily reflected in the particular guides.

24 Research4Life is a partnership of research-intensive organizations that provides free or low-cost access to libraries, particularly in developing nations, on a plethora of resources covering a variety of disciplines such as health, agriculture, sciences, environment, law, and other fields of human endeavours. See ‘Access to Research in the Developing World’ Research4Life, accessed Aug. 4, 2024, https://www.research4life.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/R4L_factsheet_2015.pdf.

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27 Countries are generally categorized into three main bands for the purpose of determining what is to be paid as a subscription fee. While those within Group A can access GOALI without any subscription cost required, those within Group B pay a lower subscription fee. Incidentally, countries within Groups A and B are mainly from the Third World nations. See generally “Eligibility for Access to Reseach4Life,” accessed July 31, 2024, https://www.research4life.org/access/eligibility/.

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37 The policy of the United Kingdom (UK) that allowed foreign students to enter the UK with their dependents has been repealed with effort from Jan. 1, 2024. It is therefore most likely that the enrollment of international students in UK institutions will decline, beginning Jan. 1, 2024. See generally “Tough Government Action on Student Visas Comes into Effect,” Gov.UK (Jan. 2, 2024), https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tough-government-action-on-student-visas-comes-into-effect#:~:text=From%201%20January%202024%2C%20tough,family%20members%20to%20the%20UK.&text=Restrictions%20to%20student%20visa%20routes,abuse%20of%20the%20immigration%20system.

38 Daruwala and Nayak, eds. (n 11).

39 Ibid., 15.

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