>> Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII)

HKLII is an inter-disciplinary project of the Centre, which is jointly established by the Faculty of Law and the Department of Computer Science at The University of Hong Kong. As the first of its kind in Asia, HKLII aims to provide free Internet access to legal information emanating from Hong Kong. By allowing the public free access to legal information which they otherwise cannot afford, the project provides support and broadens the basis for the rule of law in Hong Kong.

HKLII offers a comprehensive database of essential legal information relating to Hong Kong. This includes primary legal materials (legislation, regulations, case law, treaties etc) and secondary legal materials (law reform reports, practice directions etc). HKLII was officially launched by the Chief Justice on 17 January 2002 at a ceremony attended by the Secretary for Justice and the Vice Chancellor. Running on a server at the University of Hong Kong, HKLII is maintained by a technical team from the Department of Computer Science. Since 14 October 2003, HKLII has been accessed more than 1.7 million times (as at March 2009) by the general public with an average access rate of more than 1,000 per day. In December 2003, HKLII was selected by Yahoo as one of the 16 short-listed sites in the competition for the Ten Best Websites in Hong Kong.

HKLII draws on the successful experiences of similar projects in other countries, most notably, Australia (AustLII), Canada (CanLII), Britain and Ireland (BAILII). Run by non-government bodies, all these LIIs provide free access to legal information relating to their own jurisdictions. HKLII has been in close collaboration with these LIIs in developing open-source software for searching, indexing and retrieving legal information, as well as load balancing and sharing of legal information.

Click here to HKLII's website <http://www.hklii.hk>