Two social movements that probably look pretty similar to the outside world are public legal education (the movement) and the “Free Access to Law” movement. It’s the “Free Access to Law” movement that has helped sustain the international network of “Legal Information Institutes,” like CanLII here in Canada. What’s the difference between these two movements? And why is there so little crosstalk between them?
As for the difference between the two, while LIIs are focused mainly on access to legal materials, PLE has its attention on active promotion of legal understanding. CanLII’s mission, for instance, is
To support the legal profession in the performance of its duties while providing the public with permanent open access to the legal heritage of all Canadian jurisdiction.
Compare that to a typical PLE organization mission statement, such as LISNS‘s:
LISNS will enable Nova Scotians to have access to legal information, solve legal problems with informed choices, [and] act on their rights and responsibilities.
In other words, LIIs are trying to solve the problem of a public that’s having a hard time getting access to legislation and case law; PLE is trying to solve the problem of a public that does not even know it needs access to legislation and case law, and wouldn’t know where to look if it did.
Still, there seems to be enough overlap that duplication of services could be a risk—why so little crosstalk? For example, a co-director of the American LII, at Cornell, once touted his institute by noting that although it is “certainly not the only group that puts law on the Net . . . if you ask who carries out applied research on how to put law on the Net in an effective way that works for a wide range of citizens, we stand unique.” Moreover, the American LII has a number of truly PLE resources, such as Wex, an online plain English legal dictionary, billed as “everyone’s resource for law learning.”
What does PLE stand to gain from the LIIs’ “applied research” and approach to public legal information? What would LIIs stand to gain from greater collaboration with PLE organizations? Can anyone report existing collaborations that I’m unaware of?
June 4, 2007 at 9:11 pm
[...] LII and PLE « PLE Theory and Practice – Interesting piece. Seems as though this author has left the blog. Too bad I didn’t find it sooner. [...]
June 5, 2007 at 7:35 am
[...] LII and PLE « PLE Theory and Practice Two social movements that probably look pretty similar to the outside world are public legal education (the movement) and the “Free Access to Law” movement. It’s the “Free Access to Law” movement that has helped sustain the international network of “Legal Information Institutes,” like CanLII here in Canada. What’s the difference between these two movements? And why is there so little crosstalk between them? [...]