WorldLII World Legal Information Institute

WorldLII (The World Legal Information Institute) aims to provide free access to worldwide law, and has been developed collaboratively by various Legal Information Institutes around the world, all of which are independent, non-profit and university based. It currently has over 1800 databases from 123 jurisdictions worldwide.  

Access

WorldLII is freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection at http://www.worldlii.org/ 

Content

WorldLII provides a single platform from which to simultaneously search the contents of all the supporting legal information institutes (and the unique content on WorldLII itself). Levels of content may vary from individual jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but will typically (where possible) include English language translations of legislation, court cases, treaties and other government publications. The WorldLII catalogue is integrated into the search, providing trusted links to over 15,000 law related websites from every country in the world.

Searching/Browsing

Basic searching by keyword is available from the homepage. To search over a specific database within the site and for further field options, click the advanced search link. Searches can be limited by region (e.g. 'All Asia'), by type of data (e.g. 'All Legislation' or 'All National Highest Courts'), or by particular databases singly or in combination from different jurisdictions. 

A complete list of the databases available can be reached by following the ‘databases’ link form the homepage. Alternatively, you can browse what is available for specific countries by selecting ‘al countries’ from the homepage followed by your jurisdiction of choice.

Printing/Downloading/Emailing

WorldLII is a charity mainly concerned with open sourcing legal information to citizens over the internet, and as such is not specifically concerned with printing and downloading functionality. It is however possible to download RTF files of most retrieved documents – look for the ‘download’ option at the top of the screen once you have clicked on your search result.

Help

Help specifically related to searching, such as the use of keywords and proximity searching, is available from the ‘help’ button below the search bar on the homepage and on the advanced search page, which also has a link to a chart of Boolean operators.  Help with navigating the site can be found in the user guide, which can be accessed from the ‘help’ button at the very top right if the homepage.