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 ......................................................................................................