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BAILII: Judgment Day and Beyond

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2022

Jules Winterton
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Abstract

This article by Jules Winterton, CEO of BAILII, is an expanded version of the presentation he delivered as the Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture 2022. The article briefly recounts the history of the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) and its achievements, the features of the service and the challenges of publishing judgments. It sets BAILII in the context of recent government initiatives and outlines plans for the future of BAILII.

Keywords

free legal informationopen accessarchivesBAILIIcourt judgments
Type
The Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture 2022
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 2022 , pp. 73 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Footnotes

1 This is also an extended version of an article which appeared in (2021, October) Counsel, https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/bailii-the-next-ten-years, in (2021) 238 Writ – the ezine of the Law Society of Northern Ireland 12–13, https://issuu.com/www.lawsoc-ni.org/docs/writ_238_winter_2021_pages, and in the (2022, February) BIALL Newsletter 12–13.

2 This article was written before and immediately after the new arrangements described in the article were introduced for the publication of judgments of courts and tribunals of England and Wales.

3 https://www.bailii.org/bailii/timeline/.

4 ‘Free the Law’ [Transcript] at (2000) 1 Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT) https://www.bailii.org/uk/other/journals/JILT/2000/free_the_law2_1.html.

5 https://sirhenrybrooke.me/.

6 https://sirhenrybrooke.me/2015/10/26/bailii-how-and-why-it-all-started/.

7 http://www.fatlm.org/.

8 http://www.commonlii.org, http://www.worldlii.org, http://www.lawcite.org.

9 Donors are listed at: https://www.bailii.org/bailii/donors.html.

10 https://www.bailii.org/bailii/personnel.html.

11 See for example the Kerwhizz case: Michael Mitchell v British Broadcasting Corp [2011] EWPCC 42: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWPCC/2011/42.html.

12 https://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/ials-information-initiatives/slsbiall-academic-law-library-survey.

13 See: https://ials.sas.ac.uk/digital/digitisation-projects/judicial-committee-privy-council-case-papers for the project and for a symposium in 2016 chaired by the Rt Hon Lord Carnwath of Notting Hill CVO, Justice of The Supreme Court and Chair of the IALS Advisory Council).

14 All the Sir Henry Brooke BAILII lectures are available at: https://www.bailii.org/bailii/lecture/.

15 https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/unlocking-potential-artificial-intelligence-english-law/.

16 There was provision for physical copies of transcripts of judgments from the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) from 1951 onwards for many years to be filed at the Royal Courts of Justice and Peter Clinch tells us in 2011 that at that time they were open for public inspection, ‘Answering Queries about Access to Law Court Documents’, (March 2011) Legal Information Management 11(1), 42–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Inner Temple Library compiles a valuable more current guide: Transcripts of Judicial Proceedings in England and Wales: A Guide to Sources compiled by Adrian Blunt and Sally McLaren, https://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/transcripts-guide-to-sources/ This collection was the source for the microfiche collection, Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Judgments 1951-1980, published by HMSO in 1986.

17 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/boost-for-open-justice-as-court-judgments-get-new-home and BAILII's press release: https://www.bailii.org/bailii/press/20210616_bailii-moj_press_release_final.pdf.

18 https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ The link to ‘What to Expect from this New Service’: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/what-to-expect contains a great deal of useful information as do TNA research guides for the broader legal archives.

19 Tenders open to registered suppliers for a ‘simple publishing and editorial system’ for judgments, https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/16224 and for the enrichment of judgments and legislation e.g. with hyperlinks, https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/digital-outcomes-and-specialists/opportunities/16014 yet to be fully implemented.

20 See the section by Paul Magrath on ‘A Commitment to Open Justice’ about the selective provision of judgments in https://transparencyproject.org.uk/bailii-and-the-re-use-of-judgments-as-public-legal-information/.

21 Opportunity to Supply Digital Copies of Court Judgments to The National Archives (multiple contracts available) – Contracts Finder. The more limited retrospective content on BAILII was obtained for use only by BAILII from other publishers which might decide to tender for this contract.

22 See the commentary on the subject by Paul Magrath at https://transparencyproject.org.uk/bailii-and-the-re-use-of-judgments-as-public-legal-information/.

23 Both licences are described near the foot of https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/what-to-expect with links to further information.

24 https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/open-justice-licence.

25 https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/transactional-licence-form.

26 See a discussion of this point in ‘Judgments as Public Information’ by Magrath, Paul at (2015) Legal Information Management 15(3), 189–195CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 https://www.bailii.org/openlaw/tort.html/.