Applications on legal informatics ... the experience of the Institute of Law
The Judicial and Legislative Database Al-Muqtafi is a continuing programme launched by IoL - Birzeit University since 1994. Work on this database started with compilation of hard copies of legislation on specific topics and expanded to include compilation of all pieces of legislation enforced in Palestine since the Ottoman era. The hard copies were first placed in binders. Later, the laws were entered on the database and given identification card with referential data and relationship with other laws in addition to a
scanned copy of the original legislation.
In a later stage, the full text of all applicable laws was completed, and work began on a consolidated legislative database showing the entire pieces of legislation currently in force with all the amendments introduced thereto.
In tandem of the legislative consolidation effort, a separate court judgment database was introduced to cover the rulings pronounced by the Palestinian Higher Courts since 1994. In all of these stages, a relational database was developed starting with the basic links between the legislation in terms of reference, amendment, and repeal. The database was elaborated further to constitute today an integrated network that links all the legislative and judicial decisions contents to enable user access pertaining information upon display of the text of any piece of legislation or ruling. Al-Muqtafi can also be surfed in English since all metadata, and relational information are translated into English, in addition to the translation of full text of the most important pieces of legislation and judicial decisions.
It is worth noting that the legislation database in Al-Muqtafi hosts currently about 15000 pieces of legislation, which are classified and indexed for easy access through search in referential information or full text of such legislation. It should be noted also that the judicial decisions database contains to date approximately 23000 judgments with referential information and search fields in Arabic and English. The most important judgments are also rendered into English.
During the development of Al-Muqtafi, IoL made the database accessible to all public, governmental and quasi-governmental organizations until the launching of the current version (fourth version) on the Internet with free access to all individual and institutional users, which can be accessed following this link:http://muqtafi.birzeit.edu/
One of the core bases of Al-Muqtafi is to open up to other systems; it therefore applied top notch technology inviting local, regional and global IT expertise to continue its development applying higher standards. ; The database is now an important tool for legal practitioners and other persons working in pertaining fields; it informs users of the Palestinian legal system in a simple and effective manner. It also helps in creating a platform to benefit from other internal and external systems to ensure further development, communication and data exchange.
Currently the Institute of Law is working on updating and developing Al-Muqtafi through working on the following three components: the first is to update Al-Muqtafi with entry and processing of pieces of legislation and judicial decisions and links with different data. The second component is to utilize Akoma Ntoso in the processing and publication of legal documents, using standard framework and techniques with open sources. And the third level is paper (printed) publication of a selected package of laws and judicial decisions.
