Preliminary Scope of the Research on the Human Right of Access to Law
Copyright © 2021 By Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee, PhD in International Human Rights Law, Legal Information Technology (Legal Informatics), Indigenous Customary Law and Indigenous Rights
To be able to investigate the global problem of inadequate access to all the categories of public legal information, the scope of this research is limited to four crucial aspects of access to public legal information that reflect two realities of the contemporary world. First, the persistent emphasis on the protection of human rights, including indigenous rights, and the need for policies and projects to comply with international human rights standards. Second, the use of information and communications technology as an indispensable means of dissemination of all categories information worldwide, including public legal information.
The four crucial aspects of access to public legal information are as follows: the international legal framework for the right of free access to public legal information; easy identification of official public legal information websites for reliable and authentic resources; and the organisation of a country’s multiple official public legal information websites so that people can find them easily. They also include adequate public access to indigenous customary law to provide the opportunity for people to know the applicable rules, as its oral or unwritten nature makes it inherently inaccessible and thereunknown to many people.
Dr. Leesi Ebenezer Mitee is the Founder and Director of the Human Right of Free Access to Law Advocacy (HURIFALA). He holds a multidisciplinary PhD in international human rights law, legal information technology (legal informatics), indigenous customary law and indigenous rights.
He is an Associate Professor of Law and a former legal research national consultant to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on the 1998 PCASED project that provided the juridical foundations for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) 1998 Moratorium which culminated in a regional multilateral treaty: ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and other Related Matters 2006.
Dr. Mitee’s legal innovations include:
➤ pioneered the global advocacy of the recognition of the right of free access to public legal information as a substantive human right in 2017;
➤ devised the <.officiallaws) official public legal information generic top-level domain (gTLD) system for easy identification of the reliable versions of the laws published online worldwide;
➤ developed the system of nationally networked one-stop official public legal information websites (NOPLIW system) for optimal findability and management of online law databases;
➤ invented the human rights-based public access-adequate huricompatisation model of ascertainment of indigenous customary law; and
➤ formulated the new human rights-advocacy approach (NHRAA) that consists of ten criteria for the recognition of new human rights.
His upcoming New Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information Book Series consists of 22 modern academic article-style independent but interconnected chapters of four books:
➤ Developments in Human Rights Law and the New Human Right of Free Access to Public Legal Information: The New Human Rights-Advocacy Approach and the Ten Criteria for the Formal Recognition of New Human Rights (Volume 1) — ISBN 9789083108520 (eBook) 9789083108506 (paperback);
➤ The New Human Rights-Based Huricompatisation Model of Ascertainment of Indigenous Customary Law: Strategies for Adequate Local and Global Public Access (Volume 2) — ISBN 9789083108568 (eBook) 9789083108544 (paperback);
➤ Innovative Technological Mechanisms for Adequate Web-Based Access to National and Global Public Legal Information (Volume 3) — ISBN 9789083108513 (eBook) 9789083108582 (paperback); and
➤ A Model Empirical Study of the Current State of Governmental Provision of Free Access to Nigerian Public Legal Information (Volume 4) — ISBN 9789083108551 (eBook) 9789083108537 (paperback).
Email: info@hurifala.org
Website: https://hurifala.org