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International Journal of Law and Information Technology Advance Access published online on August 18, 2009
International Journal of Law and Information Technology, doi:10.1093/ijlit/eap001
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International Journal of Law and Information Technology © Oxford University Press 2009; all rights reserved

Enabling Free On-line Access to UK Law Reports: The Copyright Problem

Philip Leith and Cynthia Fellows*

School of Law, Queen's University of Belfast, Email: p.leith{at}qub.ac.uk
Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London. Email: cynthia.fellows{at}sas.ac.uk


  Abstract

The history of publishing legal decisions (law reporting) in the UK has been that of a privatised system since its inception, and that history has encompassed several hundred years. The privatised nature of this has meant that the product (the law report) has been, except in limited cases, viewed as the property of the publisher, rather than the property of the court or public. BAILII is an open access legal database that came about in part because of the copyrighted, privatised nature of this legal information.

In this paper, we will outline the problem of access to pre-2000 judgments in the UK and consider whether there are legal or other remedies which might enable BAILII to both develop a richer historic database and also to work in harmony, rather than in competition, with legal publishers. We argue that public access to case law is an essential requirement in a democratic common law system, and that BAILII should be seen as a potential step towards a National Law Library.

Key Words: BAILII • copyright in judgments • database right • legal education • National Law Library • benefits of deep linking

* The authors are actively involved with BAILII, but this article reflects their own personal views.


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