“What are the benefits of a more open data ecosystem for the law?” The Codex FutureLaw Conference 2014 at Stanford Law School grappled with this question during a panel discussion entitled “Forging an Open Legal Document Ecosystem.” Moderated by Law Technology News’ Editor-in-Chief Monica Bay, the panel included Brian Carver, assistant professor at the U.C. Berkeley School of Information (Free Law Project); Thomas Bruce, director and co-founder of the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell University Law School; attorney Julio Avalos, general counsel at GitHub, and Paul Sawaya, creator of Restatement, an open source software toolkit for legal technologists.
The four panelists contended that 1) open legal data can produce innumerable societal and economic benefits, and 2) there are still significant roadblocks impeding that vision.
