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www.austlii.edu.au
Australasian Legal Information Institute
A joint facility of UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law

Level 12 Building 10, 235-253 Jones Street
P O Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Australia

Tel: +61 2 9514 4921
Fax: +61 2 9514 4908

Grant to increase free access to the law

Left to right: Philip Chung, Executive Director, AustLII; the Honourable Rob Hulls, Victorian Deputy Premier and Attorney-General; Prof Graham Greenleaf, Co-Director, AustLII; Prof Andrew Mowbray, Co-Director, AustLII; Victoria Marles, Legal Services Commissioner and CEO, Legal Services Board


Free access to the law on-line will be expanded through a major grant to the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII).

Operated jointly by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), AustLII provides free online access to Australian legal materials through more than 270 databases. The service relies on external contributions to fund its operations.

The Honourable Rob Hulls, Victorian Deputy Premier and Attorney-General, announced the grant of $838,927 to be provided over a three-year period from the Legal Services Board of Victoria to help make Victoria a model jurisdiction for free access to law.

AustLII Co-Director and UNSW academic Professor Graham Greenleaf said the grant would enable AustLII to develop comprehensive and up-to-date databases of Victorian legal materials, including legislation, case law, law reform reports, law journals, and community legal materials. It is hoped the funding will have spillover effects into other Australian and international jurisdictions.

“Victoria is the first Australian jurisdiction to provide a major grant to AustLII to bring its free access legal materials to the highest possible international standards,” Professor Greenleaf said.

AustLII Co-Director and UTS Professor Andrew Mowbray said the materials would be available for free access to everyone via the AustLII website.

“The grant will also fund research into better technical methods of providing Victorian materials, which will eventually benefit how AustLII provides legal materials from all jurisdictions,” he said.

Media Contacts:
Graham Greenleaf (UNSW) Professor 0405081754 g.greenleaf@unsw.edu.au; or
Andrew Mowbray (UTS) Professor 0418 635 275 andrew@austlii.edu.au,

AustLII website: http://www.austlii.edu.au/

Date issued: 12 August 2008