Friday, March 11, 2011

Moily launches online legal information portal

Jointly developed by leading Australian, Indian legal education institutions

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Wednesday launched the ‘Legal Information Institute (LII) of India,' an online portal that comprises 108 legal databases covering all States, Union Territories and Central government jurisdictions.

LII of India, a joint project developed by leading Australian and Indian legal education institutions, draws on the framework of online public libraries that offer free and open access to legal information. It is also integrated with other similar collaborations like the World, Commonwealth and Australasian Legal Information Institutes and features tools like LawCite, an international citatory which automatically tracks citations of over 5.5 million decisions, to show the citation history of Indian cases, law journal articles and treaties from both within India and outside.

Speaking at the launch of the project, Australia's Deputy High Commissioner to India Lachlan Strahan said: “Australia is pleased to support the development of LII of India. It is a project that builds on Australia and India's broadening cooperation, and reflects our shared values, our commitment to democracy and the rule of law.”

India's “renowned IT capability,” he said, would ensure that the database continued to grow.

The database can be accessed online at http://www.liiofindia.org/.