Accessing Legal Information Across Boundaries: A New Challenge

In the actual multilingual and multicultural environment there is a significant need, in the academic world, in the legal profession, in business settings as well as in the context of public administration services to citizens, of common understanding and exchange of legal concepts of the various legal systems. At the same time, there is a strong pressure for the reservation of their basic sense and value. Both requirements are quite difficult to meet, and they are complicated by the complexity of legal language and by the variety of modalities used to express law within the various legal systems. Unlike a number of technical and scientific disciplines where a fair correspondence exists between concepts across languages, serious difficulties arise in interpreting law across countries and languages. This is largely due to the system-bound nature of legal terminology. This paper focuses on crosslanguage retrieval systems\u27 ability to facilitate access to legal information across different languages and legal orders. As such, issues are addressed relating to linguistics and translation theory, comparative law, theory of law, as well as natural language processing techniques, while some recommendations are provided with the aim to contribute to cross-language retrieval of law

Communication policy in European projects: to what extent non-expert users can better and easier perceive and understand the European legal framework

Effective and clear communication on legal issues and related implications in EU-funded research and innovation projects is a fundamental requirement which allows partners to achieve project outcomes according to the EU legislation. As a matter of fact, law permeates every aspect of society and it has an undeniable impact in every daily activity under European projects tasks. Partners without legal background and expertise should be considered as “non-experts” when facing with legal information. In particular, the use of a specialized terminology, as it is language of the law, accentuates communication difficulties and prevents to this target group to understand and be understood

La banca dati DoGi e la condivisione dei dati giuridici: nuovi orizzonti

L’informazione giuridica presenta caratteristiche del tutto peculiari per l’intrinseca esigenza di integrazione fra le sue differenti tipologie: legislazione, giurisprudenza e dottrina. In particolare quest’ultima è considerata punto di partenza per rendere interoperabile il dato giuridico. In questo contesto la banca dati DoGi-Dottrina Giuridica, prodotta, gestita e distribuita dall’Istituto di Teoria e Tecniche dell’Informazione Giuridica del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ITTIG-CNR), rende testimonianza dell’evoluzione della scienza giuridica italiana, costituendo allo stato attuale la più completa fonte italiana di informazione online sulla letteratura. Il contributo analizza le caratteristiche della banca dati nonché i servizi offerti agli utenti nella prospettiva di condivisione del dato giuridico (legame con ACNP – Catalogo Italiano dei Periodici, con NILDE - Network Inter-Library Document Exchange). Sono esaminate inoltre le opportunità dell’open access e la possibilità di supportare la valutazione della qualità della ricerca nel settore del diritto

Linking legal sources in a shared web environment

The functionality of the Portal to legal literature, which is under development at ITTIG, is described, focusing on a linking mechanism created to allow navigation between statutory rules, judicial cases and legal literature pieces of work. Reference is made to previous works carried out by Italian institutions for the identification of legislation and case law resources through URN identifiers. The design of a URN for legal literature material is planned to ensure cross-access to legal sources on the basis of user surveys carried out for the purpose of better customize the Portal's services. The main features of the proposed URN for legal literature material are described as well as tools developed for the Portal based on an OpenURL resolver mechanism in order for users to start from the examination of a law (legislation) to its interpretation (legal literature) and further to analyse the enforcement of that law in judicial cases (case law)

National Research Evaluation Systems and the Social Sciences

Many countries have introduced national evaluation exercises. The methods commonly applied have been developed for the natural and life sciences and are criticized for being ill-adapted to the social sciences. After giving an overview of different classifications of countries’ evaluation procedures, we present an empirically derived typology of national research evaluation systems that takes into account whether adaptations to disciplinary specificities, such as social sciences knowledge production and dissemination practices, are considered. The analysis shows that national evaluation systems are diverse and complex combinations of research evaluation practices at the national, regional and institutional level, including the influence of the international level on research funding of projects and careers. We conclude that diversity rather than standardisation in evaluation practices is key to reach the aim of evaluation: to provide researchers and university administrators with a tool to improve their organisation and research practice

The e-learning approach and visualisation techniques in the judicial area

Online courses, webinars and other digital media open up a wide range of convenient, cost-effective training options for law professionals. Myriad combinations of technology, platforms, content and classrooms are nowadays possible. In particular, the e-learning approach can be considered as a tailored-made mean that aims to meet the needs of a specific target group, at the same time, reach the majority of stakeholders, and ensure the continuity of the acquired abilities and skills. The positive result of this approach depends largely on the way the content is presented. Thus, the visual design of materials and the way the content is structured and displayed are important elements when designing the e-learning modules. The article tries to point out how visual techniques interact with e-learning legal programmes, specifically focusing on legal practitioners (judges, prosecutors and lawyers)

Il modello Diamond Open Access per la comunicazione scientifica accademica: contesto e iniziative in corso

Il panorama della comunicazione accademica è in rapida transizione verso l’adozione su larga scala dell’accesso aperto come pratica ordinaria per la diffusione dei risultati della ricerca. Il contributo parte dal ruolo della scienza aperta come approccio fondamentale in grado di influenzare le istituzioni di ricerca e le pratiche scientifiche, sottolineando alcune iniziative promosse dall’Unione europea. Si concentra, poi, sull’evoluzione della comunicazione accademica, evidenziando l’importanza del modello Diamond Open Access nel rappresentare le peculiarità delle comunità scientifiche. Attraverso l’analisi di studi, iniziative e progetti europei nel settore, emerge chiaramente come il modello Diamond OA si caratterizzi per la sua flessibilità e capacità di adattarsi a diversi contesti editoriali, facilitando una diffusione ampia e accessibile dei risultati della ricerca scientifica e garantendo così una comunicazione accademica inclusiva e globale

Online Publication of Court Decisions in Europe

Although nowadays most courts publish decisions on the internet, substantial differences exist between European countries regarding such publication. These differences not only pertain to the extent with which judgments are published and anonymised, but also to their metadata, searchability and reusability. This article, written by Marc van Opijnen, Ginevra Peruginelli, Eleni Kefali and Monica Palmirani, contains a synthesis of a comprehensive comparative study on the publication of court decisions within all Member States of the European Union. Specific attention is paid on the legal and policy frameworks governing case law publication, actual practices, data protection issues, Open Data policies as well as the state of play regarding the implementation of the European Case Law Identifier