This is a paper written by Advocate Peter Harris of the Jersey Law Society IT sub-committee on 1 June 1998 for the Jersey Legal Information Strategy Board.

Introduction

It is a maxim that ignorance of the law is no defence to a charge that the law has been breached, but it is abundantly clear that no private individual knows all of the law, and that even those trained in the law would not claim that they had complete knowledge. The concept that I wish to put forward in this short paper is that it is the duty of the government to provide its citizens with the best opportunity of discovering the law. There is nothing new in this idea and it received comment in the Judicial and Legal Services Review Committee Report of 1991 - it is just that there may now be a very simple way of advancing the idea.

With the arrival of electronic information systems, all business, including legal practice, is changing. The States now have the chance to help Jersey lawyers and other professionals, and the Island as a whole, to keep pace with change and, with the available technical expertise, to place the Island ahead of almost any other jurisdiction in the world. The importance of this cannot be overstated.

The core material

Initially the proposal is intended to cover judicial and legislative material, and related governmental information. This would include Unreported Judgments, Jersey Judgments and the Table des Decisions on the one hand, and Laws, Regulations and Orders, and Policy Statements/Projets on the other. Information from the Law Commission, together with commercially produced products such as the Jersey Law Reports and the Jersey Law Review, would be an important element in the plan.

The Proposal

It is proposed that there be two elements to the proposal: the first that there be free access via the Internet to core information and the second that there is by subscription over a private network access to the core information and increased content. A commercial manager (X Co) would design/manage/host a web site on which anyone can access Unreported Judgments, Jersey Judgments, Table des Decisions, Laws, Regulations & Orders and governmental information free of charge. All legal material would be marked as "for private information/study purposes only" and could not be used in proceedings. There would be such links as were thought appropriate including to States of Jersey web site and other related bodies, e.g. law firms, CAB.

X Co would also design/manage/host a private subscription-only network. The information available thereon would include all of that on the web site plus Jersey Law Reports and the Jersey Law Review and would provide for the secure transmission of information between subscribers. Whilst initially this would be a network for the legal profession (including the public service), there would be no restriction on who could subscribe. Of necessity, this information would be admissible in Court.

Finance

The provision of the free service would impact to a degree on the revenue of the States, primarily by the lessening of demand for hard copy publications such as Laws and Regulations & Orders. In so far as Unreported Judgments, which evidently are used primarily by lawyers, are only available for commercial use by subscription only, and the Jersey Law Reports and Jersey Law Review would only be available for any use by subscription, there is no reason to suppose that there would be any shortfall in revenue because an appropriate licence fee could be charged to X Co. In the short to medium term, the shortfall will most probably be minimal because many existing subscribers to the Reports or Review will not subscribe to this service in that time and because of the desire of many lawyers to have bound volumes of reference works on their bookshelves. This culture will change in the longer term but by then will be of little consequence to the proposal. The subscribers to the private service would pay a joining fee and annual maintenance charge that was commensurate with their size. Whether that is a fixed sum per partner/Jersey lawyer or charged on use is a matter to be decided. It is envisaged that the Bailiff's and Attorney General's Chambers, and the Judicial and States' Greffes would pay no joining fee but instead the contribution of the States would be the provision in electronic format of the public information.

Integrity of Information

It is vitally important that the information available under both elements is accurate and subject to appropriate control. It is proposed that X Co be a company established expressly for this proposal and that its Board include representatives of the private and public sector in addition to the technical managers.

Conclusion

Nothing in this paper is "rocket science". The work of the Australian [Legal] Information Institute is clear evidence of the benefits of this plan. In the UK House of Lords Judgments have been available on the Internet within a matter of hours for some considerable time. There are many people in Jersey who have looked at individual aspects of this proposal, or things akin to it, but these have never reached fruition. This is most likely because of the lack of co-ordination. It is my personal opinion that Jersey has a tremendous opportunity to make great advances in the provision of information to the general public and in the practice of law. Probably most importantly for the Island as a whole, we can broadcast a message to the global audience that we have a forward thinking Government and an economy that is very much open for business in the next Millennium.

Post script - the political angle

This would be a great step towards greater freedom of information and would show that the judicial establishment was responsive to new media, and responsible for opening law to the layperson and sending positive messages about the Island. Most significantly it is likely that all of this would be paid for by the legal profession yet at the same time assist in the reduction of legal costs.