Meaningful public access to legislation - Daniel Poulin Emeritus professor, U. of Montreal

Background • Free access to law and commodification of legal information • Illustrations – Justice Canada legislation site using Folio (1995); XML/HTML (2001) – CanLII all Canadian legislation (2002); SATAL – section and time based (2007) – Seychelles eGrey Book – with Zoupio, direct from Ms-Word to the web (2014) 9/10/2014 2 Meaningful public access • Access to legislation is difficult for everyb. [...] CIF of another Act or election day) • Coming into force on a date to be determined – Fixed by order of the Governor in Council (published in the Gazette) • Subsequent amendments and related CIF information 9/10/2014 7 Language • Overcomplicated drafting • Use of jargon • This said – life is complicated – Income tax provisions are complex everywhere 9/10/2014 8 Form – Definitions could be scattered. [...] B- 1.01 – Thematic classification of statutes was ruled out – Only the alphabetical order of titles remains • Evidence Act can be found under letter « C », Canada Evidence Act • Interpretation Act appears under letter “I” 9/10/2014 10 Inside legislation • Marginal notes are disappearing in Québec’s legislation: An Act Respecting Administrative Justice, CQLR c J-3 9/10/2014 11 Legislative informati. [...] – Query processing (stemming, guessing user needs) – Capacity to understand common designations (“PIPEDA” or “Bill 101” in Québec) – Presentation of contextual excerpts (snippets) – Highlighting found terms – Searching past legislation 9/10/2014 19 To cope with effectivity and change • Display explicit effectivity periods • Show versions differences • Provide current awareness tools: RSS, RSS sear. [...] 891 (QL), now we have: 2010 BCCA 239 – The way judges write their reasons – The law itself, by expanding what can be found 9/10/2014 33 Conclusions • Internet also change how legislative information is accessed – Legislation is now accessible for free in most of our jurisdictions – Legislation in digital format now enjoys official status • Many other changes will come – Simplification of effectivi.