Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

OA to law in Africa

Amavi Tagodoe and El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Les expériences africaines de la diffusion libre du droit sur le Web : bilan et perspectives, Lex Electronica, Spring 2008.  (Thanks to ServiceDoc Info.)  In French but with this English-language summary:

Given the resources lacking in African countries, including access to legal resources, various Web-based legal publication experiments open perspectives that are especially promising for efficient publication of law. For example, South Africa, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and Benin offer case law and legislation online free of charge. These encouraging experiments are laying the groundwork for African expertise in using information technologies to publish African law.

Yet it is clear that the expertise has to be strengthened and consolidated by the various players involved in putting African law online. African law professionals, university professors and information technology experts should be invited to develop and increase the expertise, in particular through exchanges, colloquiums, and regional and international partnerships.

Mastering publication of African legal resources, notably through the judicious use of information technologies, would favour the growth of African legal culture and awareness of it in society as a whole. This would also help to strengthen the ties between traditional African legal culture and contemporary legal cultures.