Research Problem

The article is based on an important issue stating that the information generated by the public funded universities must be available under public domain for fair use. This article is based on the research problems as detailed in the statement that “The rich and quality output of the research and scholarships generated and published in the Journal of Law schools in India supported by government through pubic fund is not disseminated and available under the fair outreach of the citizens of India.”

Objective

In India, 23 law schools have been established. They are in almost every state. This study is based on the following objectives:

• • To establish the quantity of law journals published by Indian law schools.

• • To understand the dissemination method adopted by the law schools in circulating law journals.

• • To visualize various types of publishing of law journals by Indian law schools.

• • To assess the need for policy guidelines for publishing law journals in India as public domain/open access publications.

Research Methodology

The article is based on a study of 23 law schools in India engaging legal education and research. The study employs a hybrid method for collection of data including webometric study, telephone interviews, and electronic mailing services. Responses were compiled in tabular formats in the first instance to evaluate and synthesize for better understanding. The percentile method was used to present data in graphical forms. The APA style manual has been used for citation of the literature related to past studies and supporting reference and bibliographies.

Free Access to Law Movement Around the World

Wildman, Bulbulia, Sosis, and SchjoedtFootnote ⁷ find that journal publication is a highly profitable business. They find that profits of several giant publication houses have shot up with a very high growth rate. They argue that open access to law journals is the only solution to support the best quality and free flow of legal research and education. They further state that the institutional repositories provide solutions of closed access where pre-prints of articles are stored for institutional access.

Peter MartinFootnote ⁸ and Tom Bruce from Cornell University initiated a public service under the title “Legal Information Institute,” in 1992. providing legal information services disseminating law generated by governmental organizations in the United States. This service was a pioneer in the effort to establish a new style of service through collection and repackaging of information generated by public institutions like parliaments, courts, law commissions, committees, and agencies involved in delivering public regulations, rules, and procedures.

Greenleaf, who himself is famous for supporting the free access to law movement around the world, traces the timeline of historical and developmental aspects of Legal Information Institutes, otherwise known as LIIs. GreenleafFootnote ⁹ elaborates that two universities: University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and University of New South Wales, Australia, used the name of Legal Information Institute from Cornell University to support the open access to law movement in Australia. Using the example of Cornell's Legal Information Institute, the Australian Legal Information Institute AusLII was established to facilitate access to cases, statutes, law reforms, reports, and other legal information generated by almost all nine states in Australia. He further explains that on the basis of Cornell's LII and AusLII, LexUM at Montreal University was designed to provide Canadian legal information. He further explains that the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) was established in the United Kingdom, followed by the Pacific Islands (PacLII), South African Legal Information Institute (SAFLI) and Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII) during the period 1994 to 2002.

In 2002, all of the existing and developing LII's representatives met during the Law Via the Internet Conference at Montreal and adopted the “Declaration of Free Access to Law Movement,” which was a prime turning point in this direction. Currently, 34 LIIs have been developed on the basis of various geographical divisions.Footnote ¹⁰ The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) indicates that the LIIs currently contain 1743 databases from 123 jurisdictions providing free access to legal information.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) submitted “policy guidelines for the development and promotion of governmental public domain information.”Footnote ¹¹ The guidelines say that the government has to act as a lead player to develop and disseminate government public domain information over which government has direct control due to the output of its own activities.Footnote ¹² The government has to design a policy for the use of public domain information and ascertain the scope of the information, mode of access to it, and use of public information as a legal principle. The guidelines enumerate public domain information, which is free under copyright law obligations and the information generated out of government activities, which involves public funds. Further, it gives several benefits of using government public domain information to the general public as it is for the benefit of society, it bridges the gap between digital divide, and it promotes production, preservation, and dissemination of public domain information.Footnote ¹³

Durham Statement on OA to Legal Scholarship: A Model from US Law Schools

The Durham Statement is a public statement of a number of academic law library directors in the United States of America who are committed to provide legal information and legal scholarship produced by their law schools and to make it accessible publicly. Richard Danner discusses the open access principles maximizing the impact of open access scholarship of individuals without hindrance by commercial players with the improvement of international dialogue among researchers.Footnote ¹⁴ His article is treated as the pioneering efforts for the Durham Statement.

According to the Durham StatementFootnote ¹⁵ on Open Access to Legal Scholarship, the directors of 12 academic law libraries in the USA met at Duke Law School in Durham, South California on November 7, 2008. According to the statement, the directors agreed to cease publication of law journals and scholarships in print format and gave their consent to provide such scholarship in digital format through the websites of the libraries of respective law schools/universities. The statement explained that the directors agreed to stop printing law reviews, which would help in reducing the cost of printing of journals. According to the statement, the directors were responsible for obtaining the consent of their respective deans or other officials who oversaw publishing law reviews and journals.

The statement was adopted and signed by the stakeholders on February 11, 2009, stating its objective, rationale, and call to action which revolves around the strategies that the law schools would provide online access of “stable open, digital formats” preferable in portable data file copies which might be indexed through metadata indexing in catalogue for further use.Footnote ¹⁶ The statement received a superb response around the United States. Many US law schools stopped printing their law reviews and journals. They started providing stable editions of journals through their websites, which resulted in benefits like expedited delivery of journals, no cost for subscriptions, and greater visibility of articles published through catalogues of the respective law schools. Today, we can access law reviews and journals published by many US law schools through their websites.

Open Access to Law Movement in India

India adopted open access to law movement through becoming a member of the Legal Information Institute family. The Legal Information Institute of IndiaFootnote ¹⁷ was designed by AUSTAD, an Australia-based non-governmental organization. It did this with the help of various law schools in India, including National Law University Delhi, NALSAR, Hydrabad, National Law Institute of India University, Bangalore, National University of Juridical Science, Kolkata, Gujarat National Law University, Tamil Nadu Dr. Amebdkar Law University, Chennai and Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab. LII of India was inaugurated at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi as an initiative taken by National Law University Delhi.Footnote ¹⁸

Apart from LII of Indian initiatives, Indian legal information is also available on the websites of respective institutions. Indian court pronouncements are available at www.indiancourts.nic.in. Parliamentary debates, parliamentary committee reports, legislations, and other allied legislative material may be accessed through www.loksabha.nic.in and www.rajyasabha.nic.in. Commissions and committee reports are also available on their respective websites viz. www.lawcommissionofindia.nic.in, www.nhrc.nic.in , and www.ncw.nic.in. A comprehensive list of such open access to law information may be referred on a web-portal https://publicdomainresources.webs.com/ designed, maintained, and facilitated by the principal author of this article. Non-governmental organizations such as Parliamentary Studies in India (PRSIndia), LiveLaw, and Bar&Bench are counted rich sources of legal scholarship and the current nature of legal information.

National Law Schools: A Hub of Legal Scholarships

Currently, India has 23 law schools enrolling integrated undergraduates, post graduates, and doctoral degree programs.Footnote ¹⁹ Some universities also provide post graduate diploma courses and online courses. Most of the law schools have established specialized research centers for intensive legal research work. Such research centers are rich sources of quality research outcomes. Most of these centers publish legal scholarships, reviews, and research papers in their allied subject fields. On the basis of data collected, it has been revealed that 82 journals are published by law schools in India. Most of the journals are regular publications. The table below shows the number of journals published by the respective law schools.

The table shows that NALSAR University of Law has an edge in publishing the highest number of journals (11) among Indian law schools. This is 13.41% of the total legal scholarship contributed in the form of law journals in India. National Law University, Jodhpur, and Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, contribute eight journals each, which is a 9.75% contribution from each institution in law journal numbers. The table shows that five law schools publish only one journal each:

1. 1. Chanakya National Law University, Patna.

2. 2. National University of Advance Legal Studies, Kochi.

3. 3. National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi.

4. 4. Tamil Nadu National Law University.

5. 5. Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra Law University, Mumbai.

Evaluation of Journals Published by National Law Schools in India

Table 2 shows that 18 universities out of 23 publish between zero to five journals. However, four universities publish 6 to 10 journals. Only one university publishes more than 10 and up to 15 journals.

Table 1: Number of Journals Published by Law Schools

Table 2: Frequency and Number of Universities Publishing Journals

Figure 1 shows the frequency of journals published by law schools in India. The graph shows a declining line illustrating that most of the universities publish between zero to five journals and only one university publishes more than or equal to 11 journals.

Figure 1: Frequency Chart of Journals

Mode of Publication of Journals in National Law Schools in India

The responses under Table 3 shows that out of 82 journals, 36 journals of law schools are available in both print as well as online. However, 35 journals are published in print only. Only nine journals are available online only and are not available in print. Publication format for two journals are yet to be decided by their respective universities.

Table 3: Mode of Publication of Journals in National Law Schools in India

If we evaluate Table 3, it seems that 45 journals are already available in digital format. Around 43.9% of journals are available in both print and electronic formats. Almost the same percent (42.68) are available in print only. We note that 10.97% of the journals are available in online format only. This means, naturally, that they are not available in print. In other words, 54.87% of the total journals are available in online formats, which includes print and online and online only.

Mode of Availability of Procurement of Journals of Law Schools in India

Most of India's law university journals are available through time-based subscriptions. Out of 82 journals, 45 journals are available in print (subscription basis). Thirty-five journals are available to access via Open Access through the respective websites of the universities.

Table 4: Mode of Availability of Journals

The following journals of the respective law schools are available under Open Access and can be accessed through their respective websites:

Table 5 shows that 14 law schools provide access to 35 journals through Open Access. However, some universities provide access to at least three or more of their journals under Open Access mode, which is a positive sign of Open Access of legal scholarships. These are NALSAR, Hyderabad, West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, National Law University Jodhpur, National Law University, and Judicial Academy, Assam and Himachal Pradesh Law University, Shimla.

Table 5: List of Journals Available Through Open Access

Table 5a: Source of Journals

Sources of Journals

Most of the Indian law journals are university publications. Table 5 shows that 75 law journals are published by respective law schools and have not taken assistance from any commercial publishers.

It is a positive sign that Indian law journals are so readily available via Open Access. These are mostly self-published by Indian law schools. Only seven law journals, which represent just 8.53% of the total law journals, are published by commercial publishing houses.

Findings

This study emphasizes the publication of law journals by 23 law schools in India. There are four main findings:

1. 1. Most of the law schools in India publish law journals. Out of 23 law schools, 15 publish between 0 to 5 journals.Footnote ²⁰ This reveals that law schools in India prioritize publishing legal scholarship in law journals.

2. 2. Publication of most of the journals (45) in an online format is a positive sign. Choosing this format may signal momentum for creating a consortium of Open Access law journals in Indian law schools.

3. 3. It is also a positive finding that most of the journals (35) are available via Open Access through websites of the respective law schools. This is another positive sign of momentum toward creating an Open Access depository of Indian academic law journals.

4. 4. The study reveals that most of the law journals (75) published by Indian law schools are produced through their own flagship university presses. This shows that the universities have no obligation to follow contractual obligations of commercial publishers.

The findings of the study emphasize that the law schools are ahead of publishing legal scholarship in the form of law journals. Eighty-two law journals published by 23 Indian law schools, is a great contribution by a single discipline.

Suggestions and Recommendations

On the basis of findings, we make the following four suggestions and recommendations:

1. 1. Indian law schools, being hubs of quality legal scholarship, must provide access to their research to all law schools, colleges, universities, research institutions, and government entities.

2. 2. We recommend the creation of a framework for policies and guidelines for establishing infrastructure. Stakeholders should design a mechanism for accessing all Indian academic legal scholarship.

3. 3. The study shows that most of the journals of Indian law schools are available in a digital format; however, a good number of journals are available through Open Access platforms. We recommend that law librarians at Indian law schools work to provide greater Open Access to Indian legal scholarship.

4. 4. Law schools in India must either actively participate to contribute their legal scholarship with the Legal Information Institute of India,Footnote ²¹ or must establish their own repositories for greater worldwide visibility of Indian legal scholarship to others around the world.