African Law for Everyone:AfricanLII and Laws.AfricaMariya Badeva-Bright · mariya@laws.africa · mariyab@africanlii.org · @mariyabb

www.africanlii.org@africanliiwww.laws.africa @laws_africa

No justice, when:

● Justice is delayed● Justice is expensive● Justice is corrupt

Access to legal information = Access to justice

Access to legal information = access to justice

• There is no reliable, consistent and up-to-date access to the law in many African countries (of the free or the paid kind)

Why?

- Not economically viable for commercial publishers (until recently)- Small profession- Little external interest as economies were

underdeveloped- State does not have funds and skills- Poor state of record keeping and archival- Low-level corruption

Open Infrastructure = open to anyone, offering speed, efficiency, services, growth and development

DECEMBER 2007 JULY 2019

HELPING EVERYONE ACCESS AFRICAN LAW

Subject Index

African Commercial Law IndexAfrican Human RIghts Index

Summarized and indexed by postgraduate students from the University of Cape Town

Visit: citator.africanlii.org

Collectively - close to 400,000 users per month; 90% from within Africa

Lawyers, judges, magistrates, law students, government, CSOs, professionals, businesspeople, ordinary citizens

Mostly urban, but with some significant “in-roads” in rural areas

Are we helping Africans Access Justice?

‘In the communities, people are afraid of the village headmen and chiefs who have a lot of power. Thus, there is a need for equipping the communities with knowledge of rights, to secure their confidence in challenging some of the dictates of the local leaders. As traditional rulings have to be confirmed by the Magistrates, I need access to Magistrates' rulings in situations where there is contestation.

‘In the rural communities, I show people the physical copy of ZimLII cases, for example to show evidence of the recent child marriage legislation. Paralegals are generally equipped with knowledge about people’s rights, but they fall back on the latest case law.’

Jonathan Chikukwa, Zimbabwean Paralegal, 24 years in the field

Pocket Law Paralegals

Facilitating access to legal information for paralegal advice offices in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

● Pocket Law website● Pocket Law USB

stick (offline/on-line)● Pocket Law Android

App (offline/on-line)

Paralegal training in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

Moderator speaks about the importance of access to information via Pocket Law Paralegals. This is one of two strategies of improving Access to Justice, says the paralegal.

In most African countries, there is no free source of consolidated, up-to-date legislation.

Access to the law promotes justice and an efficient & effective judiciary and legal sector.

Countries with better regulatory and enforcement systems have more developed credit markets, rank higher in overall development indices, and better facilitate the growth of small firms.

World Bank. 2016. Doing Business 2016: Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency.

What does access to legislation look like in 2019?

Legislation.gov.uk is the authoritative source of all UK legislation.

Kenya Law is the authoritative source of all Kenyan legislation.

OpenBylaws.org.za improves access to South African by-laws

Laws.Africa An open source, cloud platform for efficient, cost-effective consolidation and publication of African legislation.

A little bit of history

2010 - AfricanLII founded to promote the role of LIIs in Africa

2013 - OpenBylaws.org.za launches to make by-laws easier to find, read and share.

Jan 2015 - Indigo Trust awards a grant to AfricanLII to build a legislation consolidation platform.

Sep 2015 - OpenBylaws.org.za moves to the Indigo Platform.

Nov 2018 - Laws.Africa founded as a non-profit organisation.

Jan 2019 - Laws.Africa begins work to make African legislation open and machine-friendly.

Use technology to reduce the cost and time required to consolidate legislation and make it available for free.

Help African nations to leapfrog into modern technology and deliver on their constitutional mandate to inform citizens of the laws that govern them – efficiently and cost-effectively.

Crowdsource an open digital archive of gazettes and legislation to underpin the legislation collection.

Promote skills, capacity and knowledge in African governments that support ongoing, in-house maintenance of up-to-date legislation consolidations.

Make legislation available as a machine-friendly building block to unlock new value and opportunities in justice innovation.

Acts

Point in time

Point in time

Point in time

Gazettes

Laws.Africa platform

Review

Contributors Reviewers

PDF

ePUB

Print

Desktop

Mobile

Research

What isAkoma Ntoso?

Akoma Ntoso is an XML markup standard

for legislative documents.

It is a non-proprietary, open standard

managed by OASIS.

Captures rich metadata and structural

information for legislation.

Separates content and structure from

presentation.

<h3>9. The rescue of stray dogs</h3>

<p> A person who rescues a stray dog shall report the date and time of the rescue and a description of the dog to the Council within twenty four hours.</p>

<section id="section-9"> <num>9.</num> <heading>The rescue of stray dogs</heading> <paragraph id="section-9.paragraph-0"> <content> <p> A person who rescues a stray dog shall report the date and time of the rescue and a description of the dog to the Council within twenty four hours. </p> </content> </paragraph></section>

Akoma Ntoso HTML

Publish instantly for web, mobile, PDF and print

Mobile

Web

PrintPresentation

Structure

Content

Web and mobile first

● Web access is cheaper, faster, easier to update and reaches more users● First-class support for desktop, tablet and mobile users● PDF and e-book formats for offline use● Export to print for binding and archiving

Web and mobile● Rich interactivity● Points in time● Clickable links between Acts● Primary Acts and SIs● Inline definitions● Search● Browse by subject area● Browse by type (eg. Money bills)● Multiple languages● Links to gazettes

PDF and ePub● Generated automatically● Customised layout for local tradition● Clickable Tables of Contents● Clickable links● Collections and individual Acts● Zero-touch reformatting

Skills & training for consolidation

● Training by Laws.Africa editors● Build skills and reduce costs● Faster results and outputs● Full control of consolidation and review process● Continuous, frequent updates to legislation● Respond quickly to organisational changes and requirements● Not dependant on third parties● Fast-track high priority legislation● Outsource (all or parts) if necessary

Support for collaboration

● Permissions and roles● Flexible tasks and workflows● Two-step review process● Editorial sign-off on all changes before publishing

Secure

● Roles and permissions for editors and reviewers● Audit trail for all changes● Version history● Compare and revert erroneous changes● Two-step review process● Changes only published after review and approval

Hosted in the Cloud● Secure● Reliable● Minimal IT admin● Daily off-site backups● Automatic updates● Monitoring and maintenance● No proprietary licenses

Hosted on-site● Full control● Simple to deploy● Widely used & well

documented technology● Regular updates● No proprietary licenses

No vendor lock-in

● Open source software, built in Africa● Adaptable to local legal traditions, needs and processes● Invest in local and African software developers● Open standards (Akoma Ntoso XML legislative markup)● Future-proof

Integrate with any platform through the Content API● Work with your existing website (Drupal, WordPress, etc.)● Use AfricanLII’s Drupal plugin● Legislation in easy to use, embed-ready HTML● Legislation in Akoma Ntoso XML for advanced use cases● Automated Tables of Contents● Amendments, points in time and multiple official translations● Links to Gazettes

Gazette Machine:

Gazettes as source material, provenance and verification

Gazette index

Legislation index

Laws.Africa platform

End user sites (AfricanLii etc.)

API

Gazettes

“Can I trust this legislation?”

● Gazettes for provenance and verification● Automated identification and archiving of gazettes● Acts, commencements, amendments and repeals linked to source gazettes● Editors and reviewers linked to the right gazette, when they need it● Users can trace and verify source of information

Contributor community

Contributors

● Help communities help themselves● Training and support● Recognition● Simple tasks, complex tasks● Sharing and re-use

Enable the legal, librarian and related communities to crowd-source consolidations of African law in a controlled, quality-assured way, while organizing a new skilled and knowledgeable community of African legislation editors.

Call to action

● Donate gazettes and legislation● Donate your time and perform tasks on the portal● Spread the word

Questions?