Volume 8 Issue 2

Supreme Court of Canada’s cases on the Internet via SGML

DANIEL POULIN, ALAIN LAVOIE AND GUY HUARD*

In 1994, the Centre de recherche en droit public (CRDP), University of Montreal, started publishing the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, the ultimate Court of Appeal in Canada, on the Internet. Its aim was to provide free access to the decisions to members of the public and lawyers alike. As funds for the project were scarce, the CRDP had to develop cheap technologies which were easy for members of the public to use. Although the service has remained unchanged in its three years, the technical means used to provide it have evolved into a rigorous automated process based on the use of SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language).

The paper describes the more technical aspects of the project. Section 1 looks at the nature of the material to be published and the circumstances of its publication, Section 2 considers the initial approach , which, although now obsolete, highlights some of the problems of publishing legal material on the Internet, and Section 3 deals with the SGML solution which is now in place. The Conclusion briefly outlines future developments.