The Law Is “America’s Operating System”: Should It Be Open Source?
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Room 4047, Duke Law School, Durham, North Carolina
Agenda at http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/conferences/law.gov
Lunch included, Reception to follow
“Law.gov” is a proposed system that would provide open access to all primary legal materials in the US (“America’s operating system”). This includes materials from all three branches of government: court opinions, briefs, statutes, regulations, hearings and more. Currently, there is no “Google” for these documents – in fact, many of them are accessible only through expensive, password protected portals such as Westlaw, LexisNexis and PACER.
Law.gov would open legal materials to the public through a distributed registry and repository. Not only would this provide citizens with invaluable information and promote the goals of transparency and democratic participation, but some have estimated that it could save the federal government $1 billion. At the same time, though, the scale and technological complexity of building such a registry are daunting, and there are serious concerns about privacy, authentication, preservation and accuracy that must be addressed if it is to succeed.
Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, in collaboration with Public.Resource.Org, is holding a workshop to examine both the promise and the challenges of this ambitious project. The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. If you plan to attend, please register by sending an e-mail to Balfour Smith at bsmith@law.duke.edu with “law.gov” in the subject line.