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GAZETTE
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
publication and up-dating of text books by the use of
loose-leaf systems (which is very important, for example,
in the field of tax law); and by the publication of specialist
law journals or even newsletters for practitioners. Also,
the question of publication of material in microfiche form
should be examined.
(2.) The Irish lawyer makes use of much of the legal
material which is published in England. He reads English
legal textbooks, case-books, precedent books and
monographs. Therefore, it should be in his interests to
follow the developments in England and the rest of the
United Kingdom in recent years towards computerized
legal information retrieval (including drafting from
precedents in a computer). Those developments could
have important consequences for the Irish lawyer who is
largely dependent on English commentaries on law still
and who may have no choice but to share in any
computerized system introduced in the United Kingdom
eventually or to adapt that system to suit his own
requirements. The feasibility of even doing that would
depend not only on the cost but even more so on the
extent to which developments in the law in both countries
are similar in the future.
In England, as long ago as 1961, Tapper stressed the
importance of studying computer applications to law. But
it was not intil 1968 that a project, STATUS, was initiated
in England to attempt to develop a legal information
retrieval system using statutory material as a data base.
The project was sponsored by the United Kingdom
Atomic Energy Authority and its founders were Professor
Bryan Niblett and Mr. Norman Price. The data base of
STATUS consists of all the Acts of Parliament relating to
Atomic Energy, the Income and Corporation Taxes Act
1970 and the European Treaty Series. This system "not
only confirmed the feasibility of retrieving legal materials
but demonstrated the practical utility of such a
development, as well as in an attractively simple systems
design, showing capability for a much larger date base".
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The system can be used by persons without any computer
knowledge.
Aitken, Campbell and Morgan, in their report
(published by the Scottish Legal Computer Research
Trust in 1972) expressed disappointment at the lack of
progress made in the United Kingdom. The Tfust had
been founded by solicitors in practice in Edinburgh and
Glasgow in 1970 to promote the use of computer-based
systems. The report should be of particular interest to
Irish lawyers because it is based on the needs of the users
in a legal profession the structure of which is similar in
many ways to the Irish legal profession.
The first recommendation of the Report was that a
British organisation should be established to further
developments in this field. Such an organisation —The
Society for Computers and Law Ltd., — was founded in
December 1973. The Society is particularly interested in
the needs of the practising, lawyer. It publishes a
newsletter (
Computers and Law
) in four quarterly issues.
According to Aitken, Campbell and Morgan the
Statutes in Force
project of the H.M.S.O. whereby a
computer is used for typesetting and printing of statutes
meant that magnetic tapes containing all the statutory
material in force in Great Britain will be generated before
the end of the 1970's or the early 1980's. They believe
that (the computer usable form of)
Statutes in Force
may
be the most important stimulus to concrete developments
in that country because, in their view, if such tapes
become available to outside bodies and organisations the
setting up of an information retrieval system may come
sooner rather than later.
Bearing the above in mind the Irish lawyer could retain
the "book system" for the present and at the same time
keep a close eye on future developments in the United
Kingdom and elsewhere.
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(3.) A computer-based system would allow a lawyer to
"search the law" rather than continuing to rely on
traditional, manual methods of looking up the law. If Irish
lawyers want to develop a practical legal information
system (or, indeed, if they want to be involved in the
setting up and design of a national legal information
system if it is decided that one should be established) they
must ensure that the most suitable legal information
retrieval system is chosen because, simply, they would be
the primary user of such-a system. To make this possible
they must ask — according to Professor Colin Campbell
of Queen's University, Belfast — what are "lawyers'
needs?"
19
What do the "users of law", the users of legal
information and the potential users of these computer
systems actually need?"
According to one estimate there are at least 70
computerized legal information retrieval systems in
Western countries but "only a few can claim to be
operating as successful systems". Professor Campbell
believes that at least one of the reasons for the relative
failure of most of the systems is the distance there seems
to have been between the designers of the systems and the
potential users especially practising lawyers. Researchers
have identified 'the problem of fit' between available
systems and lawyers' actual needs, and have advised
caution". If a computer-based system is to be introduced
"then it is in everybody's interest that it be properly
geared to lawyers' needs".
Campbell believes that it is unlikely that a simple
transplantation of a system from one jurisdiction to
another would work. For example, even if perfectly
suitable in America or Canada a system might be quite
inappropriate or commercially impossible in Britain or in
the Republic of Ireland. He states that: "In America there
is a different legal system, different ways of handling
sources of law, there are over 300,000 practising lawyers,
the structure of law firms and the organistation of
business is different, and there is not a divided
profession". Attention must be paid in Ireland to the
salient features of the legal profession "including the
number of lawyers, the size of firms, the trends in
specialization and mergers of firms, the effect of having a
divided profession etc. These all have effects on lawyers'
work patterns".
Also the cost of the system and the price that potential
users might pay for such computer services are
important. The system must be commercially viable. The
mode of access to the computer (on-line or batch etc.) is,
of course, related to the cost of the system.
How comprehensive should the date base be? How
many of the following sources of law should be included
in the data base?
1. The 1937 Constitution. 2. Statute Law. 3. Case law.
4. Statutory Instruments. 5. Private Acts. 6. Text books
and journals. (Presumably the responsibility for the
inclusion of the sources of European Community Law in
an information retrieval system will be borne by the
European Commission).
Also, should the system be based on the full text of the
law which would cost more to establish and operate or
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