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The Right of Public Access to Legal Information: A Proposal for its Universal Recognition as a Human Right

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2019

Abstract

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This Article examines the desirability of the universal recognition of the right of public access to legal information as a human right and therefore as part of a legal framework for improving national and global access to legal information. It discusses the right of public access to legal information as a legal right and the importance of its international human rights framework. The Article argues that every person has the right of public access to legal information, which casts a legal and moral duty on every government and every intergovernmental organization (IGO) with judicial and legislative functions to provide adequate and free access to its laws and law-related publications. It argues further that every government can afford the provision of adequate public access to its legal information and that the lack of political will to do so is the preeminent factor responsible for inadequate—and in some cases extremely poor—public access. Additionally, this Article advocates the universal recognition of the right of public access to legal information as a human right and makes a proposal for a UN Convention on the Right of Public Access to Legal Information. It provides the essential contents of the proposed UN Convention which incorporate The Hague Conference Guiding Principles to be Considered in Developing a Future Instrument. These contents provide valuable input for urgent interim national and regional laws and policies on public access to legal information, pending the Convention's entry into force. The proposed UN Convention will significantly enhance global access to official legal information that will promote widespread knowledge of the law. It will also facilitate national and transnational legal research and remedy the chronic injustice from liability under inaccessible laws under the doctrine of “ignorance of the law is no excuse”—which is similar to liability under ex post facto and nonexistent laws—and promote the proposed doctrine of “ignorance of inaccessible law is an excuse.”

Type
International Jurisprudence
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by German Law Journal, Inc. 

References

1 See discussions infra Section D.II.5 (discussing the remedy for the injustice from the ignorantia juris doctrine); Section D.II.6 (discussing the numerous benefits from adequate public access to legal information); Section D.II.8 (discussing the global promotion of the rule of law).Google Scholar

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279 See Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UDHR, https://udhr.audio/UDHR_Video.asp?lng=eng (last visited July 6, 2017) (audio version of UDHR); Universal Declaration of Human Rights: History of the Document, United Nations, http://www.un.org/en/sections/universal-declaration/history-document/ (last visited July 6, 2017) (stating that Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of U.S. President Roosevelt, Franklin D., chaired the committee that drafted the UDHR).Google Scholar

280 See, e.g., UDHR in Sign Languages, Office of the UN High Comm‘r for Hum. Rts. (last visited July 6, 2017), http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Pages/UDHRinsignlanguages.aspx (featuring videos of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in British and Spanish sign languages); New Zealand Sign Language Content Offers Deaf Community Better Access to Legal Information, N.Z. L. Soc‘y (May 12, 2016), https://www.lawsociety.org.nz/news-and-communications/latest-news/news/new-zealand-sign-language-content-offers-deaf-community-better-access-to-legal-information.Google Scholar

281 See sources cited supra note 71 (discussing the use of assistive technology for access to legal information by persons with disabilities).Google Scholar

282 Customary Law Systems and Mixed Systems with a Customary Law Tradition, JuriGlobe—World Legal Systems, http://www.juriglobe.ca/eng/sys-juri/class-poli/droit-coutumier.php (last visited July 6, 2017).Google Scholar

283 See Soderlund, Walter C., Liberia, 1990: ECOMOG I, “Operation Liberty,” UNOMIL in Humanitarian Crises and Intervention: Reassessing the Impact of Mass Media 21 (Soderlund, Walter C. et al. eds., 2008).Google Scholar

284 See Aalen, Lovise, The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia: Actors, Power and Mobilisation Under Ethnic Federalism 87 (2011).Google Scholar

285 See JuriGlobe—World Legal Systems, supra note 282.Google Scholar

286 Van Breda v. Jacobs, 1921 (AD) 330, https://www.coursehero.com/file/21226446/VAN-BREDA-AND-OTHERS-v-JACOBS-1921-AD-330/. See J. C. Bekker & I. A. van der Merwe, Proof and Ascertainment of Customary Law, 26(1) Southern African Pub. L. 115, 120 (2011), http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/18455.Google Scholar

287 Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, Huricompatisation: The Concept of Human Rights-Compliant Public Access to the Customary Law of Indigenous Communities (forthcoming 2017). For the flaws of codification as a method of ascertainment of the customary law of indigenous communities, see Weisbrot, David, Customary Law, 1 Aboriginal L. Bull. 1, 3–4 (1981–1998); Joan Vincent, Contours of Change: Agrarian Law in Colonial Uganda, 1895–1962, in History and Power in the Study of Law: New Directions in Legal Anthropology 166 (June Starr & Collier, Jane F. eds., 1989); Jelle J. P. Wouters, Land Tax, Reservation for Women and Customary Law in Nagaland 52 (9) Economic & Political Weekly 20, 23 (2017).Google Scholar

288 The term with its abbreviation is my coinage.Google Scholar

289 See Mitee, supra note 15, at 56–62 (discussing legislation awareness programme).Google Scholar

290 Mary Omogor Ifukor, Channels of Information Acquisition and Dissemination Among Rural Dwellers, 5(10) IJLIS 306, 307 (2013), http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/IJLIS/article-full-text-pdf/494E19F40088 (lasted visited July 8, 2017); Uzuegbu, Chimezie P. & Naga, Moses M., Information Communication to Rural Cassava Farmers in Nigeria: A Pilot Study, 9(2) JAIST (2016), http://jaistonline.org/vol9no2_2016.html (lasted visited July 8, 2017); Henry Kam Kah, Civil Society, Socio-Economic Development and Nation-Building In West Africa, 7(4) AAJOSS (2016), http://www.onlineresearchjournals.com/aajoss/art/220.pdf (lasted visited July 8, 2017).Google Scholar

291 Free Internet connectivity should be available in public depository libraries that stock government-held information which includes legal information.Google Scholar

292 See Arnold-Moore (2003), supra note 84.Google Scholar

293 Frank La Rue (Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression), Rep. of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/17/27, at para. 65 (May 16, 2011) [hereinafter Frank La Rue (2011)].Google Scholar

294 Id. Google Scholar

295 Id. at paras. 78–79. For a discussion on the human right of access to the Internet, see generally Stephen Tully, A Human Right to Access the Internet? Problems and Prospects, 14 Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 175 (2014).Google Scholar

296 Tañada v. Tuvera, supra note 59 (“[B]efore the public is bound by its contents, especially its penal provisions, a law, regulation or circular must first be published and the people officially and specially informed of said contents and its penalties.”); Corporation de l'École Polytechnique v. Canada, 2004 FCA 127, para. 39 (CanLII):Google Scholar

Invincible mistake of law, accepted by the courts and Parliament, refers to mistakes which it is impossible to avoid because it is impossible for the person charged to know the law, either because it has not been promulgated or because it was not published in a satisfactory way so that its existence and contents could be known.Google Scholar

(emphasis added).Google Scholar

“[Ig]norance of the law due to its nonpublication must be a credible defence.” See Anyangwe, Carlson, Criminal Law: The General Part 207 (2015). Frans Rumpff, the Chief Justice of South Africa, delivered a revolutionary unanimous judgment in 1977 that abolished the general application of the doctrine of ignorance of the law is no excuse in relation to mens rea in criminal offenses. See State v. De Blom 1977 (3) SA 513 (A) at 529 H (S. Afr.).Google Scholar

297 See Garvey, Stephen P., Authority, Ignorance, and the Guilty Mind, 67 SMU L. Rev. 545, 556 (2014) (conceding that ignorance of the law should not be an excuse with regard to mala in se offenses); see also Cottone, supra note 173, at 143 (asserting the relative ease of public awareness of the unlawfulness of mala in se offenses in contrast with regulatory offenses: “For example, one would be hard-pressed to find a person that never heard of someone going to prison for murder or robbery—the illegality of these acts has been hammered into our collective consciousness.”). The age-old judicial distinction between mala prohibita (evil-because-prohibited) and mala in se (naturally-evil) offenses is established in criminal law. See generally Davis, Mark S., Crimes Mala in Se: An Equity-Based Definition, 17 Crim. Just. Pol'y Rev. 270 (2006); State v. Anderson, 5 P.3d 1247, 141 Wash. 2d 357 (2000); Note, The Distinction between “Mala Prohibita” and “Mala in se” in Criminal Law 30 Colum. L. Rev. 74 (1930). The distinction, despite its imperfection, is necessary for the attainment of justice in special circumstances to prevent avoidance of liability based on my proposed human-right defense of inaccessible and therefore unknowable law. The application of this distinction here is based on accessibility of the law, not on criminal intent—mens rea. Google Scholar

298 See supra Section C.I (discussing the existence of the right of public access to legal information under the general right of access to public or government-held information).Google Scholar

299 See id. Google Scholar

300 See supra Section C.V (discussing judicial recognition and enforcement of the existing right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

301 See supra Section C.II (discussing the traditional requirement of publication of legal information).Google Scholar

302 See supra Section C.III (discussing the use of advanced technologies to enhance accessibility).Google Scholar

303 See supra Section D.II.1 (discussing the normative gaps associated with the existing derivative status).Google Scholar

304 See supra Section C.V (discussing judicial recognition and enforcement of the existing right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

305 See supra notes 21–23 and accompanying text (discussing the poor public access to legal information in Nigeria and Mali).Google Scholar

306 See Douglas-Scott, supra note 138.Google Scholar

307 See Office of the UN High Comm'r for Hum. Rts., supra note 142, at 2–3.Google Scholar

308 See supra Section D.II.2 (detailing the human rights framework for the right of public access to legal information).Google Scholar

309 For instance, with regard to the CRPD, there was a period of about seven years between the setting up of its Ad Hoc Committee by the General Assembly in 2001 and when it entered into force on May 3, 2008. See Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Why a Convention?, United Nations (Apr. 21, 2016), http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/questions.shtml#five (providing the background to the Convention that was adopted on Dec. 13, 2006).Google Scholar

310 See generally Kingdon, Tony, The Relevance of Research to Policy Formulation: An Australian Perspective, 88 Addiction 61S (Supplement s1, Jan., 1993); Wagenaar, Alexander C., Research Affects Public Policy: The Case of the Legal Drinking Age in the United States, 88 Addiction 75S (Supplement s1, Jan., 1993); Amanda Wolf, Research Strategies for Policy Relevance, 23 Soc. Pol'y J.N.Z. (2004); UNCTAD Virtual Inst. on Trade and Dev., Research-Based Policy Making: Bridging the Gap between Researchers and Policy Makers (Recommendations for Researchers and Policy Makers Arising from the joint UNCTAD-WTO-ITC Workshop on Trade Policy Analysis, Geneva, Sept. 11–15, 2006), https://vi.unctad.org/tda/papers/tradedata/tdarecs.PDF.Google Scholar

311 See, e.g., supra notes 21–23 (discussing the poor public access to legal information in Nigeria and Mali).Google Scholar

312 See supra Part B (discussing the lack of political will hinders public access to legal information).Google Scholar

313 Regina v. Chambers [2008] EWCA (Crim) 2467 (revealing that previous decisions of the England and Wales Court of Appeal over a period of seven years were based on a repealed regulation that neither the Court nor the lawyers that appeared before it knew of).Google Scholar

314 Rex v. Bailey (1800) 168 Eng. Rep. 651 (Eng.).Google Scholar

315 United States v. Casson, 434 F.2d 415 (D.C. Cir. 1970).Google Scholar

316 See supra Section D.III.2.15 (discussing the proposal that there should be no liability under any inaccessible law).Google Scholar

317 The Hague Conference Guiding Principles to be Considered in Developing a Future Instrument (2008), an annexure to Access to Foreign Law in Civil and Commercial Matters: Conclusions and Recommendations, Eur. Comm'n, https://assets.hcch.net/upload/foreignlaw_concl_e.pdf (last visited July 6, 2017). These are principles developed by the experts which met on Oct. 19–21, 2008 at the invitation of the Permanent Bureau of the Hague Conference on Private International Law as part of its feasibility study on the “access to foreign law” project.Google Scholar