LAW schools are bedevilled by the vice of students who cut and paste material from the web and present the results as their own work. The problem was the topic of a recent seminar on plagiarism and copyright held at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Fortunately, plagiarism detection systems are now available (for example, www.turnitin.com and www.canexus.com).

Student essays are submitted to these systems in electronic form and advanced search and comparison tools then identify web pages from which copying may have taken place. Word on the campus is that such software does precisely what it says on the shrink-wrap. Potential miscreants have been warned. The lyrics of the American song satirist (and Harvard mathematician) Tom Lehrer spring to mind:

Plagiarise
Let no one else’s work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don’t shade your eyes
But plagiarise, plagiarise, plagiarise —
Only be sure always to call it please ‘research’

This is poor advice for students, but not a bad mission statement for knowledge managers in law firms.

JERSEY is establishing an online database of its legislation that should be the envy of all jurisdictions (www.jerseylegalinfo.je/Law/LawsInForce). The system is the culmination of five years’ work, involving not simply a consolidation of all statutory laws enacted in the island since 1771 but an entire revision as well. This means that all legislation in force, together with countless amendments, have been gathered together and restated as a new, coherent body of law. The revised version should come into force on July 1.

Putting it online, as searchable text and in a print version that corresponds to the authorised text, is part of a broader strategy to make the law more accessible in Jersey. To help further, the revised law is organised intuitively under a series of 26 chapters, covering topics such as family law, crime and sentencing and financial services. Looking ahead, as new revised editions are prepared, earlier versions and any laws omitted from the revision will still be accessible — in a chronologically arranged “laws as enacted” section. The initiative has been driven by the Jersey Legal Information Board under the chairmanship of the Bailiff of Jersey.

ONE of the ruling misconceptions in the world of legal technology is that large law firms are better placed than smaller ones to exploit advanced systems. In fact, leading firms frequently suffer from diseconomies of scale and from supertanker syndrome (an inability to change direction swiftly).

The fallacy of the disadvantaged small player has again been exposed, this time by a sole legal practitioner (www.pjhlaw.co.uk) who has collaborated with an e-learning company to produce an online service devoted to the subject of dignity at work (www.pjhelaw.co.uk). The system offers structured tuition (in different ways for different types of learner) on related areas of law. It is interactive and easy to use, although not multimedia. Ultimately, it enables employers to show that they have harassment policies and that all employees have been appropriately trained. Here, e-learning means risk management.

The author lectures and consults internationally. He has been IT adviser to the Jersey Legal Information Board since 1998. He can be contacted through www.susskind.com

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