AustLII 1995: What Did We Think We Were Doing?

Abstract

The Legal Information Institute (LII, Cornell), to commemorate its 25th anniversary, commissioned 25 contributions to its '25 for 25' series in the VOXPOPULII blog. This is the 4th in the series.

This short article is, as requested, on the theme "Here's what we *thought* we were doing, and here's what it really turned into", as applied to the formation of the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) in 1995.

It discusses 13 objectives or principles that we thought we were implementing in 1995, as evidenced by our contemporaneous actions or publications, and whether they have turned out to be either achievable or a good idea.

The article also discusses some environmental factors which contributed to AustLII's success, and some examples of developments in free access to legal information which we did we not imagine, back in 1995. Every free access to law provider has a different story to tell, with different challenges to overcome in environments typically much more difficult than Australia.

Keywords: legal information, free access, AustLII, Australia, LII