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Australasian Legal Information Institute

a legal research facility on the internet

The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII), a legal research facility on the internet, is being jointly established by the University of New South Wales and the University of Technology, Sydney. Funding of $110,000 for 1995 has been provided by the Department of Employment, Education and Training (DEET) from its Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Program ('Mechanism C'), and is supplemented by a further $50,000 provided by the two host Universities. The establishment of AustLII was supported by the Australian Committee of Law Deans. It is intended that it will develop as a research facility operated collectively by Australasian Law Faculties. AustLII commenced operations on 1 January 1995.

Internet access to Australian legal research materials

AustLII's principal purpose will be to provide to legal researchers, via the internet, effective access to Australasian legal materials that are in the public domain or for which licences can be obtained at minimal charge. AustLII will not charge for access to the materials it provides. Access will be via standard internet tools such as world-wide-web, wais, telnet, ftp and list servers. AustLII will be part of the expanding international network of internet servers which are concentrating on providing public domain legal materials throughout the internet.

Among the research materials provided by AustLII will be primary legal materials such as legislation; secondary materials such as bibliographies, law reform reports and law journals; and data sets to support various types of empirical legal research.

Other services of AustLII will include

• easy access to the latest internet client software and other tools to facilitate use of the internet;

• a hypertext tutorial on the use of the internet for legal research;

• expertise in data conversion to assist other legal research bodies to develop internet facilities;

• operation of e-mail lists concerning specific subject areas of Australasian-oriented legal research.

Management structure

In addition to the Co-Directors, AustLII's Management Committee comprises Joe Ury, Deputy Law Librarian at UNSW; Robert Watt, Senior Lecturer in Law at UTS; and Alan Tyree, Landerer Professor of Law & Information Technology, University of Sydney. AustLII's management will be advised on policy matters by an Advisory Committee comprising two nominees by each University Law Faculty that wishes to be involved, plus invitees. The Committee will communicate with AustLII's management principally via an internet list.

Collaborative arrangements

AustLII is developing close co-operative arrangements with other key providers of legal information via the internet, in Australia and internationally. These include LAWNET, the ANU-based Law Clearinghouse to enhance the quality of University teaching in law, and electronic journals such as Murdoch University School of Law's E-Law. The Australian legal profession is starting to make use of network facilities (eg the NSW Law Foundation's communications network, 'First Class Law') and AustLII will seek to develop co- operative links with initiatives from the profession.

11 January 1995