The Gazette 1977

GAZETTE

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

and the Economic and Social Committee. 7 In 1966 in Belgium the Union of Belgian Lawyers and the Federation of Notaries set up a working group. The group made a report which formed the basis for the creation of CREDOC ( Centre de documentation juridique). The Centre became operational in 1969 and offers its services to all Belgian lawyers in all fields of Belgian law. CRFDOC rejected the full text approach and adopted an indexing or keyword system under which the basic idea is a "concept" which expresses "a legal idea". It is a batch processing service (as opposed to a real-time system). A question is submitted by a lawyer in writing and the question is processed by the staff of CRFDOC off-line in batch runs. In 1970 a user had to wait for 4 to 12 days to receive his answer but the response time has since been reduced. The data-base is legislation, case-law and articles published in certain legal journals since 1st January 1968. Although other systems are operative in France, Italy, Sweden, West Germany and the United Kingdom, the Belgian system, CREDOC, should be particularly interesting to the Irish legal profession for the following reasons: It was established by a small profession in a small country (which is, of course, a small market). It is supported by all sides of the Belgian legal profession (including avocats, notaires, judges and government lawyers). It was created by the legal profession to satisfy its own needs and is non-profit making. Every practising lawyer makes an annual subscription to a fund supporting the system. A further subscription is received from the local Bar Associations and a grant is provided by the Belgian Government. Once the yearly subscription is paid by a lawyer he can pose as many questions as he desires. The climate for the establishment of CREDOC in Belgium was the "unsatisfactory organisation of legal materials, and the need for increased efficiency and better methods of handling the information available to Belgian lawyers". Therefore, it would seem that CREDOC could be a worthwhile subject for study by anyone considering setting up a system in the Republic of Ireland. 8 It is reasonable to ask for a justification for the introduction of a computer-based retrieval system. Bing and Harvold point out that "retrieval systems — in the form of manuals, indexes etc.— have for a long time been of assistance to the lawyer in his research. The computer- based systems represent a technical revolution in this respect . . .'"They continue: "reference retrieval corresponds to the traditional legal research. Computer- based reference retrieval systems represent an attempt to make this research more efficient. But opinions may differ with respect to what "more efficient" should imply." 10 They state that "there are limited possibilities ofjustifying computer-based retrieval systems by arguing that the user will be able to do the same amount of research in less time. The flaw in this argument is inherent in the phrase "same amount of research". The introduction of a better retrieval system will in itself imply a change in the "amount of research carried out". This is a qualitative change —and this change may itself be the justification for introducing the new information system". 11 Bing and Harvold also refer to the argument of Professor Spiros Simitis of West Germany who in Informationskriese des Rechts und Datenverarbeitung (1970) refers to "the legal information crisis". He argues that modern society has caused a legal information explosion. Legal norms are used as a tool for implementing social reform and gaining political control,

resulting in a deluge of statutes, regulatory law etc. ("Normenflut"). At the same time the complexities of modern society give rise to more frequent conflicts— which in turn has led to the establishment of an increasing number of agencies for solving conflicts (administrative courts, revision boards, etc.), causing a deluge of legal decisions and precedents ("Entscheidungsflut"). This legal information crisis undermines the "rule of law" in its traditional sense — Simitis argues that the rule of law can be strengthened only by extensive use of computer-based systems. According to Bing and Harvold this is the main justification given for the massive effort by the German Ministry of Justice to create a national, legal information system (JURIS, Germany). They conclude that "improvement in the quality of the legal decisions is usually emphasized as. a justification for introducing computer-based legal information systems". 12 (But what is the extent of the legal information crisis in the Republic of Ireland? And, if, in fact, none exists will one develop and, if so, how can it be averted?). Bing and Harvold acknowledge that computer-based legal information systems represent investments in time and money but argue: "When justifying the change in technology, one might argue that the new information system is more efficient — making legal research less time-consuming and consequently cheaper in the long run. This is obviously not the main motivation behind the creation of better information systems. We have several times pointed out that the new technology represents a basic change influencing the research habits of lawyers. Comparing the state of research before and after the introduction of the new technology, one will find a difference in quality. A different type of research is conducted; the lawyers do not confine themselves to doing what they were doing before the change; they do more or something else. These changes in the quality of legal research may not adequately be translated into quantitative terms (time or money) and it is precisely these changes in quality that are very often pointed out as the chief justification for introducing the new technology." 13 In their historical survey of computer- based legal information retrieval Bing and Harvold give several examples of this sort of argument. In the United States, they state, "a major concern was the failure of conventional information systems to cope with the information growth". In West Germany "the principles of the rule of law were emphasized: the new information systems were to act as guarantees for equal decisions in equal cases, co- ordination of the stands taken by the government, etc. Actually these systems represented measures taken by the public administration in order to reconfirm that the "rule of law" was their major concern, and that the information growth had not undermined the system". 13 In France, according to Bing and Harvold, the tendency was similar. The lack of publication of the decisions of the appeal courts was stressed when introducing the documentation system of IRETIJ and other centres. They believe that this line of reasoning has become most apparent in West Germany. "The plan of a total, national, legal information system (JURIS) has in many ways been introduced as a therapy to an ailing conventional system. The JURIS system should once more bring the capabilities of the information system up to the standards demanded by the volume of information, thus re-establishing the "old order" . . . These examples must suffice to demonstrate that the label "rule of law" has served as a major

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