The AustLII service offers free online access to Australian legal information, receiving more than 700,000 hits a day.
It is a joint facility of the University of Technology Sydney and the University of New South Wales law faculties, but relies on the generosity of contributors to operate.
AustLII Development Manager Richard Hunter last week appealed to the Queensland legal profession for assistance in funding this ongoing service.
“AustLII provides more free access legal information than any other online resource in Australia,” he said. “Every day the legal profession, business and industry is saving thousands of hours of time, resources and money by using AustLII.
“Despite an extremely difficult environment, in 2020 AustLII continued to provide a service that was even more heavily relied upon than usual. Usage of the AustLII service increased from 233 to 238 million page accesses and over 6.5 million distinct hosts were served.”
AustLII publishes public legal information – primary legal materials (legislation, treaties and decisions of courts and tribunals), and secondary legal materials created by public bodies for purposes of public access (law reform and royal commission reports for example) and various law journals.
“AustLII is committed to the principles that free access to public legal information is a democratic right that promotes justice and the rule of law, and that public legal information is digital common property and should be accessible to all on a non-profit basis and free of charge,” Mr Hunter said.
“We are providing an essential service delivering critical national research infrastructure supporting justice and enabling the rule of law for Australia.
“AustLII operates as a charity in order to deliver its mission of free and anonymous access to public legal information. Donations are our core income and these are vital to ensuring that AustLII can continue to provide the vital service upon which we all rely.”
Make a donation to assist AustLII in continuing to provide its legal information service.
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