The ARC LIEF program has granted funding for the Australian Legal History Libraries Stage II for 2015.
The Australasian legal history libraries stage II: Australia’s leading legal historians will partner with the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) to create a massive expansion of free online access to Australasian legal history through digitisation and data aggregation. The Legal History Libraries on AustLII will become a comprehensive trans-Tasman collection from 1788-1999, including all reported case series and those from colonial newspaper reports, and all Acts enacted, plus key collections of historical Bills, Gazettes, legal commentaries, and Parliamentary reports. The Libraries are expected to double in size from their current 50,000 items of cases and legislation. The Libraries will enable previously impractical access, comparative research, and international collaborations.
Mark Finnane will be collaborating with the University of New South Wales, the administering organisation.