The Gazette 1977

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

GAZETTE

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. 11 (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

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". 17 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

126