Tim Wu — copyfightin' Columbia Law prof — writes in with this new project:
Project Posner is a free and fully searchable database of Judge
Richard Posner's 2100+ opinions. It is one of a very tiny handful
of free legal case searches on the internet right now.The law supposedly belongs to the people, but it can be surprisingly hard to
find. American case reports — which are the real law of the nation — are
hard to get at, and even when on the internet, rarely searchable. To get
real access you generally need a Westlaw subscription which costs a small
fortune. Wikilaw is a great effort to try and change this, but it is still
primitive.We chose Posner because he was my old boss, and because he's
arguably the most influential judge in the nation (including those
on the supreme court). Project Posner is just a beta. It is a test project for will be
more to come.
(Thanks, Tim!)
Update: Tim sez, "I wrongly and evilly forgot to properly credit my programmer, Stuart Sierra, who actually did the coding for Project Posner."
Update 2: John sez, "The Legal Information Institute is
another project that aims to make US laws more accessible. The LII is
a free service of Cornell Law School, and contains links to US cases
and statutes, introductions to areas of law, and lots of other content
for nonlawyers and lawyers. (Full disclosure: I am a student at
Cornell Law, but I do not work on the LII.) Enjoy."
