NATIONAL7Spotlight Weekly)]

DIAL For It

Free access to a law library on the Internet

BY AKSHAY SHARMA

There is a huge -- and growing -- quantity of legal material available on the Internet. Most of it is available free. Governments, courts and universities around the world post legal information they produce on the World Wide Web.

The full text of legislation from over 100 jurisdictions, major collections of case law, treaties, law reform reports and hundreds of the journals are available this way.

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 worldwide coverage and are often difficult to use with enough precision for legal research.

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 find and use legislation-related materials from this growing Internet law library. DIAL provides free access to a one-stop starting point to the world of legal information on the Internet.

DIAL does not add new legal material, it provides better access to what is already there.

It is based on a well-structured catalogue of links to thousands of the worldís best law sites. Although DIAL is only in its early stages of development, it has links to legislation from over 100 jurisdictions worldwide, hundreds of law journals and much other material. DIALís subject index classifies material by over 30 subjects.

DIAL also allows the full text 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. A ëweb robotí being sent to sites in the catalogue builds the search facility.

Many additional DIAL feature make it a powerful research resource. 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. Searching results are sorted with the most relevant items presented first.

Each page in DIALís catalogue contains a search form that 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 legislation from all countries (but not other materials), or similar precise searches.

It is also possible to search only within the content of a single site. Searches are ëstoredí as links in the catalogue, assisting users to do more expert searching.

DIAL has a special emphasis on the law of Asia-Pacific countries -- an Asian perspective on access to world law.

DIAL has been 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 worldwide online library of legislation-related materials. DIALís 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 DMCs.

The project DIAL team will provide in-country training in Internet legal research to government lawyers in seven selected DMCs: China, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. The 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 training. All DIAL trainees receive support and assistance by e-mail.

DIAL includes on-line training facilities accessible to all users through the DIAL home page. User guides will initially be available, followed later by interactive training courses.

Project DIAL also includes DIALogue, an e-mail based facility by which authorized users in DMCs can make contact with, and obtain some assistance fromÇ 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 authorized as users by the ADB's Office of the General Counsel.