The European Community has placed a new online front end on its law-related offerings, aiming to make it easier to find what you want amid the welter of languages, systems, and regulations. The recently launched European e-Justice Portal contains sections directed at the public, businesses, the legal profession, and the judiciary. Within the Legal Profession section are the following resources:
- Law – providing general information and links with respect to the laws of the union, member states, and international treaties
- Case law – offering links to databases containing judgments for these various jurisdictions (and notably lacking any references to WorldLII or BAILii)
- Legal professions and judicial systems – containing pretty much an overview for the various jurisdictions involved
- Justice Forum – which "organises thematic meetings during which the representatives of the member-organisations express their views on newly proposed and existing justice policy initiatives and legislative instruments"
- Judicial systems – providing, again, general information
- Registers – offering information and links with respect to business, land, and insolvency registers
- Videoconferencing – supplying information for those who might want to use videoconferencing in legal discussions or proceedings for efficiency's sake.
[hat tip: @richards1000]
Respond: make a comment | read the 3 comments
Share:
Email
|
Save as PDF | Print
|
Bookmark & Share
|
|
More: in Substantive Law: Foreign Law or Technology: Internet | from Simon Fodden
|
the count:
8642 posts | 11937 comments
recent comments  
Today’s Tip: Monitor UN documents with RSS Since I last looked, the United Nations Documents site has a new look and feel. For what the site is trying to deliver, … »»Research Last spring, Meritas’ Leadership Institute released a Social Media Guide for Lawyers. This helpful resource provided lawyers with an overview of the three main social media tools — LinkedIn, Faceb. […] »»Technology Following on our earlier Top 10 Financial Errors posts, this is the first in a series of 10 posts dealing with Cash Flow Reports and in particular, cash flow management.… »»Practice
-
-
-
Available online today are four new chapters of the publication Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report, which explores the socio-demographic and economic circumstances of Canadian women in general.
-
The bill amends the Constitution Act, 1867 by readjusting the number of members and the representation of the provinces in the House of Commons.
-
-
Blueseed plans to buy a ship and turn it into a floating incubator anchored in international waters off the coast of California.
-
Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the flow of information out of Ottawa has slowed to a trickle.
-
-
"…the IPC has exclusive jurisdiction to decide whether a record is in the custody or control of a university in the context of an access request…"
-
These summaries of selected recent cases are provided each week to Slaw by Maritime Law Book.
More information.
-
Aliens - Exclusion and expulsion - Power to detain and deport - Minister’s certificate - Review - Evidence
In 2002, Harkat was detained pursuant to a ministerial security certificate issued under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) as a person inadmissible to Canada on grounds ...
-
Contracts - Formation of contract - Signing - Electronic signature
The plaintiff expressed an interest in purchasing the defendant’s (vendor’s) condo. The parties agreed to carry on their discussions through e-mail. Following an exchange of e-mails, the plaintiff claimed that the defendant was contractually bound to ...
-
Barristers and Solicitors - Relationship with client - Confidential communications - General
The petitioner was a Receiver appointed in March 2009 by a California court over the assets of GJB Enterprises Inc. (a “Ponzi scheme”) and its principals, the Berkes (the GJB parties). The court ordered ...
-
Practice - Costs - Funding before judgment - When interim or advance costs available
The plaintiffs were “direct to home” satellite based subscription program providers. Rex and other defendants offered “grey market” services to Canadian residents to facilitate the unauthorized reception in Canada of the plaintiffs’ ...
This is a listing of a few upcoming events in Canada of interest to lawyers, law students, legal librarians, and others involved in the practice of law.
Clicking on any event in the list below will give you access to more information and to links allowing you to see the full entry and to add the event to your own calendar.
Click this link for a fuller version of the TalkLaw/ParLoi calendar of events and for instructions as to how to add events and calendars to your own calendar.
|
Interesting video accompanying the Press Release. The citizen justice portal is found here in French and here in English. The Press Release is here
European e-Justice internet portal offers quick answers to citizens’ legal questions
An Italian travelling in Germany needs a lawyer. A French entrepreneur wants to search the Hungarian land register. An Estonian judge has a question about the Spanish court system. At the moment, it may take weeks to get this information.
Answers to these questions – in 22 European Union languages – will be a click away. The EU today launched the European e-Justice portal – an electronic one-stop-shop for access to justice throughout the EU. The web site benefits citizens, businesses, lawyers and judges with cross-border legal questions and boosts mutual understanding of different legal systems by contributing to the creation of a single area of justice. With more than 12,000 pages of content, the first version provides information and links on laws and practices in all Member States. For example, the portal offers information on legal aid, judicial training, and videoconferencing, as well as links to legal databases, online insolvency and land registers. Justice information is now at the fingertips of more than 10 million citizens involved in crossborder judicial procedures each year.
"Today is an important day for the European area of Freedom, Security and Justice.
Through this portal, we lay the foundations of a more efficient and accessible justice to the European citizen", said Stefaan De Clerck, Belgium’s Ministers of Justice. "The e-Justice project is the cornerstone of a modern European Justice, and the e-Justice portal is the door which gives access to it. An intensive cooperation between all stakeholders involved is now essential for a long-lasting success."
"E-Justice is justice at a click. We’re taking a major step today in bringing justice closer to EU citizens and in increasing mutual knowledge of each other's legal systems. With knowledge comes trust and with trust comes the confidence that your rights will be protected no matter where you are in Europe,” said Vice-President Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. "Citizens, businesses and lawyers will benefit from a real one-stop cyber shop for justice information. Eventually,
the site will modernise and streamline the way people receive legal information and advice. Citizens will get answers in their own language and they will get them quickly. We all know how crucial this is: justice delayed is justice denied."
Who benefits from this site?
– Citizens can get answers on how the 27 Member States' legal systems function.
They can get quick answers when dealing with real-life events such as divorce, death, litigation or even moving house. They can find a legal practitioner in another country, learn how to avoid costly court cases through mediation, where to bring a lawsuit, which Member State's law applies in cases and whether they
are eligible for legal aid.
– Lawyers, notaries and judges can have access to legal databases, contact colleagues through judicial networks and find information on judicial training. They also find information on arranging cross-border videoconferences;
– Businesses will find links to insolvency and property registers and information about the laws that apply and about cross-border proceedings.
Language barriers – which often complicate getting this information – are overcome by offering information in all official EU languages. The website’s contents are available in 22 official EU languages. The website’s links will direct users to national information of Member States.
The involvement of judges and legal practitioners – notaries, lawyers, bailiffs and mediators – is essential to the success of the portal and several projects are underway. For example, work is ongoing on a European Case-Law Identifier (ECLI) to facilitate access to national and EU case law in the cross-border context.
The Commission, which manages the site, will continue to work closely with Member States to progressively enrich its content and develop new functionalities.
Today's launch is the first step in developing a multilingual portal that can make life easier for citizens, businesses and practitioners in Europe.
New information, tools and functions will be added to the portal in the next few years. Fact sheets on defendants' rights and victims' rights in all EU Member States will be available in early 2011, including, for example, information on how road traffic offences are dealt with in different countries. These fact sheets will serve as a basic reference tool for legal practitioners as well as citizens.
Future versions of the portal will also make existing EU justice tools more effective, allowing a citizen to make a cross-border small claim or payment order online. Businesses will also benefit from lower costs thanks to simpler, streamlined online legal procedures once insolvency registers, business registers and land registers are accessible via the portal.
Courts would be able to deal with cross-border requests online and communicate with the claimants and defendants in a particular case as well as with courts in other Member States.
Work is already underway to ensure that by 2013 there will be a tool allowing citizens to narrow their searches for lawyers. For example, the portal will allow a citizen to look for a German-speaking lawyer who specialises in family or divorce law in Hungary.
Good progress is also expected to be made to tackle EU-wide interoperability issues for e-Signature, e-Identity and e-Payment. Solutions in these areas are required for several of the e-Justice projects' full implementation, such as for the European Payment Order or the European Small Claims procedure.
Here's how to find WorldLII and BAILII:
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is located about two-thirds of the way down the page under Case Law – International Case Law. BAILII is located under Case Law – Member State case law – and then click on the Union Jack (U.K.) flag at the bottom of the right-hand side of the page.
there is a very helpful search engine as well on this portal; hitting it with 'worldlii' and 'bailii' brings results incl. the pages mentioned on the comment by Jill G.