FREE ACCESS TO LEGAL INFORMATION IN NEW ZEALAND

The New Zealand Legal Information Institute announced that New Zealand acts are now available as searchable PDF documents with hyperlinks from cases to legislation. Another 20 databases on NZLII cover nearly all NZ courts, treaties, law reform reports, and four law journals. Nice to have this all in one place.

URL: http://www.nzlii.org/

READABLE LAWS: AN OXYMORON?

Readable Laws “is a wiki dedicated to explaining [US] Congressional legislation in plain English.” Areas listed on the home page include Internet, Video Games, Biotech, and Copyright. It is “a project of NewAssignment.Net, a project in open-source, pro-am journalism.” (Pro-am is a coalition of professionals and amateurs.) It was started by K. Paul Mallasch, a former Gannett employee. It looks interesting, Each bill/law covered includes analysis and the text of the law with “translations” interspersed. Looks to be very interesting, but since it is dependent on the input of others, we’ll have to see how it develops.

URL: http://www.readablelaws.org/