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The Problem(s) with open-source law

-- By ShawnFetty - 19 Oct 2011

Introduction

Open-source law envisions the coordinated effort of dispersed, freely collaborating lawyers. The idea builds on the same premise (simplified here) as open-source software: the product of free and easy sharing is superior to proprietary products. Open-source law promises the pursuit of justice where there is none—or at least cheaper legal services.

To-date, implementations of open-source law have tackled 1) legal reference materials and 2) collective brief writing. Nevertheless, a sustainable model for open-source law remains undeveloped. In the first case, a number of Wikipedia-law-clones have been published on the Web, but none have been even modestly adopted. Moreover, while Cornell's Legal Information Institute is a credible legal reference, it falls short when it comes to promoting actual advocacy. As for the second approach, Harvard’s experiment in “[harnessing] the distributed resources of the Internet” to draft briefs appears to have been effectively decommissioned some time in 2002, just a few years after its inception. The Berkman Center’s Openlaw site is riddled with dead links and other signs of neglect.

In contrast, Wikipedia and open-source software are, by this point, more-or-less self-perpetuating. Where a hole exists in either, someone somewhere will fill it, probably sooner than later. Free collaboration has clearly worked well in these contexts. Here, I sketch what happened with open-source law. Law is not inherently incompatible with the open-source model. Moving forward, any successful open-source law methodology must respond to the array of sociological and professional elements working against lawyers collaborating.

Section II

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Subsection B

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