A new gateway for lawyers to go online for trustworthy legal information has been launched in Australia.
WebLaw is the new subject gateway to almost 2000 Australian legal Internet resources.
Project coordinator Barbara Thorsen of UQ’s Law Library said the database currently handled about 8000 queries a week.
In its busiest week, it dealt with 16,000.
“Whether you need the latest privacy legislation, or information on legal issues as diverse as sports law, native title, e-commerce, intellectual property and criminology, WebLaw will provide the best starting point,” she said.
“WebLaw will find not just the wording of laws for you, but also the bodies most concerned with their drafting, implementation and review.
“You could search the Net for similar information, but that is too hit-and-miss a process for legal information, which often has to stand up – literally – in court.
“WebLaw solves the key issues of provenance and trustworthiness of information, thus saving time and effort.”
Ms Thorsen said that what made WebLaw different from the hundreds of other legal web sites was that WebLaw records were reviewed.
Only the best and most trusted sites made the cut.
Any site found in the database had been through an authentication process by expert staff at one of WebLaw’s contributing partners.
Ms Thorsen said so far, 21 institutions were involved in WebLaw.
They included university libraries, the National Library of Australia, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, the National Native Title Tribunal and the Federal Court of Australia.
Each institution contributes records to WebLaw in its own area of expertise.
“For example, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library contributes records on constitutional law, Monash University covers e-commerce, while The University of Queensland, the coordinator of WebLaw, provides expertise in human rights law,” she said.
The database is constantly updated, and links not only to full text legislation, but also to organisations, publications, educational materials and other trusted legal sites.
New contributing partners are being sought to ensure the database grows bigger and more useful.
The project has received high-level endorsement. According to the Hon Justice Glen Williams of the Queensland Court of Appeal, WebLaw “provides students and researchers with easy access to a vast amount of information, making Internet research more efficient and simple to use.”
He called it “an innovative approach to the pooling of legal resources among Australian institutions.”
WebLaw was made possible by a Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (RIEF) Grant from the Australian Research Council, as well as significant contributions, both financial and in kind, from collaborating organisations.
For further information, contact Ms Thorsen, email: b.thorsen@library.uq.edu.au , telephone 61 7 336 52933.
