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Judgments As Data Automated Open!Access Analytics for Decisions of Courts and Tribunals in New Zealand

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Judgments As Data Automated Open!Access Analytics for Decisions of Courts and Tribunals in New Zealand JUDGMENTS AS DATA AUTOMATED OPEN!ACCESS ANALYTICS FOR DECISIONS OF COURTS AND TRIBUNALS IN NEW ZEALAND December 2020 Tom Barraclough | Curtis Barnes | Warren Forster Produced with funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation Information Law and Policy Project. December 2020, Auckland, New Zealand Cover image credit: Malte Baumann, Unsplash. 1 PREAMBLE ............................................................................................................................................. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................................... 5 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................................... 6 A NOTE ON “STRUCTURED DATA” ......................................................................................................... 8 OVERVIEW OPEN ACCESS TO DIGITAL CASE LAW IN NEW ZEALAND ...................................................................... 10 PREVIOUS ACCESS TO JUSTICE RESEARCH (2015) ........................................................................................... 10 PARTNERSHIP WITH OPENLAW NZ (2019) ................................................................................................. 11 ACCESS TO DIGITAL CASE LAW IN NEW ZEALAND ........................................................................................... 13 SUMMARY OF OUR FINDINGS ................................................................................................................... 14 PART ONE ACCESSING JUDGMENTS AT SCALE ...................................................................................................... 16 WHY WE SHOULD ENHANCE THE AVAILABILITY OF JUDGMENTS ......................................................... 17 JUDGMENTS STATE THE LAW .................................................................................................................... 17 CONSTITUTIONAL FACTORS, OPEN JUSTICE AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION .......................................................... 18 ACKNOWLEDGED LIMITATIONS ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO JUDGMENTS AT SCALE ................................... 20 PRIVACY AND SENSITIVE CASES.................................................................................................................. 20 MAINTAINING JUDICIAL DISCRETION AND CONTROL (INCLUDING SUPPRESSION) ..................................................... 20 WOULD ANOTHER SYSTEM BETTER PROTECT THESE PRINCIPLES? ........................................................................ 21 HOW IS CASE LAW CURRENTLY ACCESSED OUTSIDE OF COMMERCIAL PUBLISHERS? .......................... 22 PDF AND “ACCESS” AS MACHINE READABILITY ................................................................................... 26 DISTRIBUTION OF CASE LAW AS PDF BY EMAIL .............................................................................................. 28 THE NEW ZEALAND COUNCIL OF LAW REPORTING......................................................................................... 29 CONCLUSION TO PART ONE ................................................................................................................. 31 PART TWO BALANCING BENEFITS AND TRADE-OFFS ............................................................................................. 32 THE BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS OF AOAA AND JUDGMENTS AS DATA............................................ 32 EFFECTIVE PUBLIC DATABASES OF CASE LAW ................................................................................................. 32 LINKED LEGAL MATERIALS ........................................................................................................................ 33 CITATORS ............................................................................................................................................ 33 TRACKING SUPPRESSION AND IDENTIFYING INFORMATION SUBJECT TO SUPPRESSION .............................................. 34 RESEARCH PLATFORMS FOR EMPIRICAL WORK ............................................................................................... 34 LEGAL EDUCATION OPPORTUNITIES ............................................................................................................ 35 INNOVATION IN LEGAL TECHNOLOGY ENTERPRISES ......................................................................................... 35 PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS AND MACHINE LEARNING ON CASE LAW ....................................................... 35 PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS ON CASE LAW ......................................................................................................... 36 ANALYSING THE BEHAVIOUR OF PARTICIPANTS IN JUSTICE SYSTEM ...................................................................... 37 WHY THESE POTENTIAL USES SHOULD NOT PREVENT DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM ............................................... 38 2 WE SHOULD INVESTIGATE A BETTER SYSTEM ................................................................................................. 40 A NOTE ON ISSUES OF RESOURCING............................................................................................................ 40 CONCLUSION TO PART TWO ................................................................................................................ 41 PART THREE CREATING AND PUBLISHING MACHINE-READABLE JUDGMENTS AS STRUCTURED DATA..................... 42 SUMMARY OF PART 3 ............................................................................................................................ 42 OVERVIEW OF HOW SUGGESTED SYSTEM WOULD WORK .................................................................................. 43 AN EXAMPLE OF AN EXISTING SYSTEM: AKOMA NTOSO ................................................................................... 45 SUGGESTED SYSTEM CAN OVERCOME CONTEMPORARY ISSUES WITH LEGAL PUBLISHING ........................................... 47 BETTER ACCESS TO BETTER PDFS ALONE IS INSUFFICIENT ................................................................................. 51 OTHER POLICY FACTORS TO CONSIDER ............................................................................................... 52 RECOMMENDATIONS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ............................................................................................ 52 DEVELOPMENTS IN CANADA .................................................................................................................... 53 ALGORITHMIC TRANSPARENCY AND RELIABILITY ............................................................................................ 54 DATA ETHICS........................................................................................................................................ 54 DIGITAL INCLUSION................................................................................................................................ 55 COPYRIGHT ......................................................................................................................................... 55 CONCLUSION TO PART THREE.............................................................................................................. 56 PART FOUR CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 57 RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................................... 58 IMPLEMENTATION MECHANISMS ....................................................................................................... 60 APPENDICES BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................... 63 ABOUT THE AUTHORS ......................................................................................................................... 70 ABOUT OPENLAW NZ .......................................................................................................................... 71 APPENDIX ONE: SUMMARY OF SUGGESTED FUTURE SYSTEM ............................................................ 72 APPENDIX TWO: EXPLANATION OF OPENLAW NZ PROTOTYPE AND PROOF OF CONCEPT ................. 75 OVERVIEW .......................................................................................................................................... 75 HOW WE WORKED WITH OPENLAW NZ TO DEVELOP THE PROTOTYPE................................................................. 75 EXPLAINING THE TOOL AND THE VARIABLES .................................................................................................. 82 KEY POINTS IN SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ 88 LIMITATIONS OF TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF JUDGMENTS AS A METHOD ..................................................................... 89 LIMITATIONS OF OUR SUBJECT MATTER AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS .................................................................... 91 APPENDIX THREE: NOTABLE FEATURES OF AKOMA NTOSO ................................................................ 92 EXAMPLE OF AN EXISTING STANDARD: AKOMA NTOSO ................................................................................... 92 PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION OF AKN ......................................................................................................
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