Abstract
Laws and jurisprudence, as they intimately affect the public, should remain public and not locked as proprietary content by way of the creation of the derivative work of "collection." It is suggested that proponents of the commons, in their jurisdictions, find ways of gathering public domain materials to equate the collections being pursued by proprietary entities, especially in the absence of government effort to provide the same, in the same direction that FLOSS has been made an alternative to the previously predominant proprietary software in the market. Although it may be contended that this line of project(s) is predominantly in the realm of law practitioners and law students, the direction, however, assures the availability of materials that would aid ordinary citizens to be informed of their rights, obligations, and potential liabilities as provided by public documents. The availability of the said resources also provides for the raw data that could be useful in the development of other value-added law-related documents, which if released similarly, could benefit the commons and/or society in general.
It is with this background that emphasis is being made to the region-wide cooperation being cultivated to gather multi-jurisdictional legal content. The Philippines, for example, has multiple public resources available to satisfy aspects of legal research. One of these is the LawPhil Project developed by the Creative Commons Philippine jurisdiction lead public institution, Arellano University School of Law. In turn, the LawPhil Project, among other entities in the region, has contributed to the content available in the Asian Legal Information Institute resource. Further efforts remain to be important to support this direction.
Following the pattern of development of this class of legal content, fresh efforts are being exerted to create another class of content, i.e. value-added law-related documents, that are to be released to the commons, preferably through Creative Commons licensing. This is to provide alternative to proprietary law books, which are usually limited by printing considerations (such as content volume-to-price ratio, update requirements viz existing inventory, etc.) The availability of licensed legal content can provide substantial impact in law education, the delivery of legal services, etc., that could inure to the benefit of society as well.
Active participation by legally-interested individuals in the development of a single comprehensive resource is also being contemplated.
Media
Speaker
Photo by Jimmy Soriano, CC:BY-NC-ND 3.0 PH
Jaime N. Soriano
Jurisdiction and Legal Project Lead
Creative Commons Philippines
More known as 'Jimmy', the speaker is a lawyer, a certifiied public accountant,and has a masteral degree in national security administration. He is a practising lawyer and a law professor and lecturer in constitutional law, taxation, remedial law and information technology law. He is also the Executive Director of the e-Law Center and the Information and Technology Center of the Arellano University School of Law. He writes a weekly column 'Note Verbale' in the Manila Times, the Philippines oldest newspaper.
His cause towards open access to law or open legal content began in 2001 when he led and co-founded the LAWPHiL Project, the most popular and extensive database of Philippine law and jurisprudence, now partner of the Asian Legal Information Institute as well as the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) and the University of New South Wales.
The speaker has written published articles and delivered lectures on various topics in information technology law. His papers and blog may be viewed at www.soriano-ph.com.
Photo by Berne Guerrero, CC:BY-NC-ND 3.0 PH
Michael Vernon M. Guerrero
Deputy Project Lead
Creative Commons Philippines
Atty. Berne Guerrero finished Political Science and, subsequently, Law. He is currently a partner in the Ocampo Santos Nunez Lomangaya and Guerrero law office, a professor in a paralegal course offered by the Institute of Continuing Legal Studies and Education, the deputy director of the e-law Center and Information and Technology Center of the Arellano University School of Law, among others.
He first provided shareable legal content during his first year of law school, to help out his fellow students through his website; and now embarks on a more ambitious pursuit on similar materials for a larger audience. He remains interested in the visual arts even if he is currently focused in the legal direction.
