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What is DIAL? A Law Library on the Internet? There
is a huge and growing quantity of legal materials being made available on the
Internet’s World-Wide-Web. Most of it is available for free access to anyone
with access to
the Internet. Governments, Courts and Universities around the world are making
the legal information they produce available in this way. There is already
available the
full texts of legislation from over 100 jurisdictions (including the leading
jurisdictions of the world), major collections of case law, treaties, law reform
reports and the texts of hundreds of law journals. The
quantity of available legal materials is growing rapidly. It is a free access
Internet Law Library. The
problem is that it is often very difficult to find the right legal material from
around the world or from a specific country when you need it. Existing research
tools on the Internet do not provide world-wide coverage and are often difficult
to use with enough precision for legal research. What
is Dial? Project
DIAL (Development of the Internet for Asian Law) is a project funded by the
Asian Development Bank (ADB) which aims to make it easier to fmd and use
legislation-related materials from this growing Internet Law Library DIAL is a
free access one-stop starting point to the world of legal information on the
Internet. DIAL
is a catalogue and search facility of legal materials on the Internet from all
countries world-wide. DIAL does not add new legal materials to the Internet it
provides better access to what is already there. DIAL
contains two main components. Catalogue
of links.
DIAL is based on a well-structured catalogue of links to thousands of the
world’s best law sites. Although DIAL is only in its early stages of
development as yet, it already Links to legislation from over 100 jurisdictions
world-wide, hundreds of law journals and much other material. DIAL’s Subject
Index will index materials by over 30 subjects. Search
engine.
As well as providing links to law sites DIAL also allows the full text (every
word) of most of these sites to be searched. The search facility already covers
over 10 gigabytes of legal texts, and this is growing very rapidly. The search
facility is built by a ‘web robot’ being sent to sites in the catalogue. What’s
special about Dial? Many
additional DIAL features make it a powerful research resource: Powerful
search features.
The search engine used by DIAL provides a wide range of search options, from the
simple entry of a couple of key terms through to sophisticated boolean and
proximity searching. Search results are sorted with the most relevant items
presented first. Precise
scope searching.
Each page in DIAL’s catalogue contains a search form which gives users the
choice of searching the full text of all sites, or of limiting the scope of the
search by the location in the catalogue. This makes it possible to search over
legislation from all countries (but not other materials), or over any legal
material from a particular country, and similar precise searches. ‘Search
this site’
It is possible to search only over the content of a single site. Stored
searches
Expert searches are ‘stored’ as links in the catalogue, assisting users to
do more expert searching. Free
access
Access to DIAL is free and does not contain advertisements. Asian
focus
DIAL has a special emphasis on the law of Asia-Pacific countries a” Asian
perspective on access to world law. Who
benefits from DIAL? Access
to DIAL is free to all users, but DIAL is developed with the particular aim of
assisting the Developing Member Countries (DMCs) of the ADB in the process of
law reform by providing efficient access to a world-wide on-line library of
legislation-related materials. DIAL’s first priority target audience is the
law reform and legal drafting personnel of DMCs who do not otherwise have access
to comparative law materials. DIAL
is also intended to benefit legal education, the legal profession and the
general public, particularly in Bank DMCs. In-country
Training
The
Project DIAL team will provide in-country training in Internet legal research to
government lawyers in seven selected DMCs: the People’s Republic of China,
Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. DIAL’s
Regional Training Coordinator will establish DIAL Internet workstations at key
locations in each country, and will assist the local Training Associate in each
country to provide ongoing local training. All DIAL trainees receive ongoing
support and assistance by e-mail. On-Line
Training
DIAL
will include on-line training facilities accessible to all DIAL users through
the DIAL home page. User Guides will initially be available, followed later by
interactive training courses. DIALogue
Project
DIAL also includes DIALogue, an e-mail based facility by which Authorised Users
in DMCs can make contact with, and obtain some assistance from, panelists with
expertise in particular legal subjects. The assistance might include brief
statements of general principles, and guidance on resources and further
contacts. Officials in DMCs are authorised as users by the ADB’s Office of the
General Counsel. Who
operates DIAL?
The
Asian Development Bank has provided funding for Project DIAL under a three year
US$600,000 Law and Development Regional Technical Assistance (RETA) from July
1999-20002. The ADB’s Office of the General Counsel oversees the project. Project
DIAL is being carried out by an international project team from eight countries
led by Datalex Pty. LTD. The
Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) provides the host computer
facilities, technical development and content development for DIAL. AustLII is a
joint facility of the Law Faculties of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)
and the University of New south Wales (UNSW). DIAL
is part of AustLII’s World Law resource which provides special emphasis on
legislation-related materials. World Law (http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/World/)
covers case law, legal education and other legal materials as well. The
Regional Training Coordinator for DIAL (Philippines based CD Asia) is assisted
by local Training Associates in the seven countries in which in-country training
in DIAL use will be provided. The
Dial team is also seeking contributions from content contributors with expertise
in laws of particular countries or subjects. |
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