LexBlog is going to undertake, as a project, the building of an international open legal blog archive.
What’s it mean?
The body of secondary law created by legal blogs now exceeds that of law journals and law reviews. However, there’s no central place to locate the content, authors and publishing organizations (law firms, law schools, other organizations).
As a result this law cannot be found. It cannot be cited by practicing lawyers, academics and the courts. The advancement of the law – moving faster than at anytime in history – is curtailed.
As to to the title of the project?
Open. Too much of the law is closed, not open to effective use. Legal content, even that contributed by legal practitioners to traditional legal publishers is held behind pay walls by such publishers. An archive of legal blogs available to practicing lawyers, academics, the public, libraries and legal research platforms must remain open. It’s possible that traditional publishers, with the consent of authors, would place an archive of legal blogs behind a paywall and charge for access.
Legal Blog. Speaks for itself. More legal insight and commentary, particularly on niches, is published in blogs than anywhere else. Blogs are the publishing platform of record when it comes to the law today.
Archive. An apt description for gathering, retaining and delivering a body of secondary law that includes the necessary data (content) and meta data (article title, author’s name, date, publication title etc) for its use.
International. Makes sense in an increasingly global world where digital information can be accessed from anywhere. Also connects the users of information with authors worldwide and legal professionals with similar niche authorities, worldwide.
Stay tuned.
Our thinking is to publish a blog tracking the archive’s growth, discussion on open law and the technology needed for an effective archive.
