Legal Information: A picture of Europe!
Brussels: 16 July 2010
The European Union announced the launch of the e-Justice Internet portal.
The announcement states:
“The EU today launched the European e-Justice portal – an electronic one-stop-shop for access to justice throughout the EU. The web site benefits citizens, businesses, lawyers and judges with cross-border legal questions and boosts mutual understanding of different legal systems by contributing to the creation of a single area of justice. With more than 12,000 pages of content, the first version provides information and links on laws and practices in all Member States. For example, the portal offers information on legal aid, judicial training, and videoconferencing, as well as links to legal databases, online insolvency and land registers. Justice information is now at the fingertips of more than 10 million citizens involved in cross-border judicial procedures each year.”
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The Council of the Europe Union has published a number of videos that extol the virtues and benefits of the e-Justice portal.
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Perhaps understandably there is little mention of how this information could be re-used by others to provide other added value services whether that be for profit or otherwise. One of the points made in the video published by the Council of European Union is that: “Innovations of the Member States are brought to the European level”. Taking the innovation point and considering the re-use of legal information across the European Member States the e-Justice portal provides a picture of the differences with respect to the re-use of legal information within Member States.
For a view of the status of the re-use of legal information across the European Union Member States visit the Legal Notice page on the e-Justice portal and move to Copyright. When reading the text it is worth keeping in mind the target audience of the e-Justice portal. Many Member States have innovated with respect to keeping statements on the use of information very simple but clear.
The English word “re-use” appears 19 times.
Member States that set the best example include:
- Denmark
- Finland
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Netherlands
- Sweden
- UK
The following TABLE ranks the Member States by the number of words used (in the English language):
EU & Member State
Number of words
Denmark
17
Finland
20
Sweden
27
Lithuania
28
UK
47
Latvia
50
Hungary
57
Greece
64
Bulgaria
66
Netherlands
74
Cyprus
79
Romania
80
Estonia
88
Czech Republic
91
Slovenia
91
Ireland
93
Italy
95
European Union
101
Spain
101
Slovakia
120
Portugal
132
Poland
203
France
211
Belgium
218
Luxembourg
263
Germany
325
Austria
341
Malta
384
It is clear the European Commission together with many Member States have some way to go to improve the overall picture of the re-use of legal information within the European Union!
Perhaps the LAPSI Thematic Network will be able to assist!
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