Foreword from Marc K Peter, Chief Operating Officer, LexisNexis Pacific
Advancing Together, Vol 3, Issue 2, December 2014
Dear Reader,
The Rule of Law is a fundamental driver for advanced societies, providing certainty and access to justice for individuals and corporations. Legal content and technology organisations interact on many levels to support the Rule of Law (local and global, online and print, free and commercial), connecting various stakeholders with authoritative content and rich data via a range of platforms and channels suited to the individual’s or organisation’s needs.
LexisNexis Butterworths, incorporated in the UK in 1818, Australia in 1911 and New Zealand in 1914, is a leading provider of content, workflow and productivity solutions to the legal community and a vital enabler of the Rule of Law across seven key areas:
1: Legally trained employees gather, edit and update legal and regulatory materials, ensuring access to comprehensive, current and high quality content from a central provider.
2: Value-add activities to enrich raw data, warehousing it in sophisticated databases and augmenting it to make it smart, accessible and applicable to diverse use cases: these activities include the building of databases (for instance LawNow, the complete set of Australian legislation), extensive content linking, the presentation of related content within relevant practice areas or jurisdictions, and the display of visual aids such as the famous CaseBase Case Citator “signals” which act as traffic lights for practitioners relying on case law.
3: The commissioning of expert authors from the academic and practitioner fields, helping to make the law understandable and accessible; over 2,000 authors in the Pacific region are contributing to the massive analytical knowledge set available at LexisNexis. New approaches in content creation are adding new value to customers, such as the LexisNexis Practical Guidance suite of practical, checklist based content.
4: Maintaining, expanding and supporting the channels and platforms which provide access to content, including through the timely publishing of print titles (textbooks, journals and newsletters), the enhancing of online databases and digital solutions, and the provision of training and customer service functions for those who rely on LexisNexis content and platforms.
5: Software solutions which provide content in a timely fashion within the practitioner’s workflow, enabling efficient administration and management of the business and practice of law, such as LexisNexis Visualfiles for government agencies and in-house counsel (implemented in several Public Prosecution departments and Legal Aid organisations across Australia and New Zealand) or Lexis Affinity and PCLaw practice management solutions for law firms.
6: New technology-driven innovations, which take advantage of the latest IT capabilities to reduce risk and increase efficiencies, such as LexisNexis Red (providing offline access to content on iPads® to Police prosecutors and litigators), Lexis for Microsoft Office® (enriching and fact-checking user-generated content with the LexisNexis online database), and new drafting solutions with Lexis Smart Precedents.
7: And most importantly, specific Rule of Law initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region making legal content available to under-served populations, such as through the publication of the Fiji Law Reports, a series of textbooks for practitioners in Papua New Guinea, and the free provision of online content to libraries on Pacific island nations.
LexisNexis and other legal content and technology organisations are some of the building blocks of the Rule of Law: it is a privilege to partner with the legal community to enable the advancement of society.
With kind regards,
Dr Marc K Peter
Chief Operating Officer
LexisNexis Pacific
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Advancing the Rule of Law around the World
The rule of law is a concept that unifies our company across the globe and is passionately supported by the people of LexisNexis.
We’re committed to actively working to advance the rule of law, through our day-to-day business, products and services, and actions as a corporate citizen by:
- Providing products and services that enable customers to excel in the practice and business of law, and that help justice systems, governments, and business to function more effectively, efficiently, and transparently;
- Building legal infrastructures for developing nations;
- Documenting local, national, and international laws and making them accessible in print and online to individuals and professionals in the public and private sector;
- Partnering with governments and non-profit organisations to help make justice systems more efficient, transparent and advance the rule of law;
- Supporting access to justice by corporate citizenship initiatives that strengthen civil society and the rule of law across the globe, including pro bono.
Community Contribution
As part of a regional commitment to the rule of law, LexisNexis Asia Pacific has implemented a program of support that enables local communities and developing nations to gain access to materials and guidelines, essential to the proper administration of justice and advancement of society.
The Judicial Department of Fiji selected LexisNexis as their publisher for the authorised 2012 volume of Fiji Law Reports enabling legal practitioners in Fiji to excel in the practice and business of law and assist the judiciary, governments and businesses to function more effectively, efficiently and transparently. Read more Back to top
Slave Free Seas provides legal assistance for victims — and promotes prosecution where possible — along with programs to raise public awareness of the problem, research into the extent of human trafficking around the world, and advocacy for legislative change.
LexisNexis has worked with Slave Free Seas to produce a publicly-available, free resource to assist those helping victims to seek justice, in any jurisdiction around the world, and to encourage the legal pursuit of those who try to profit from human trafficking. Read more Back to top
Vanuatu Ministry of Justice selected LexisNexis as their preferred supplier for workflow and process automation, following a request for tender process. LexisNexis will implement a Court Management system using Lexis Visualfiles to enable more efficiencies and productivity whilst addressing the rule of law. The project will include business analysis, project management, configuration, data migration and training to name a few.Back to top
In October 2014, the pilot consultation workshop was held in Myanmar with top corporations, law firms, associations, intergovernmental organizations and the UN in attendance. In Early March, 2015 LexisNexis held a Pacific Consultation Workshop in Sydney with the critical purpose to ensure that the Pacific region is included in a global Framework that will ultimately take the form of a guide for all businesses in how they can support the rule of law.
The Pacific workshop was held with senior representatives of the legal communities, academics and NGOs. In collaboration with the local UN Global Compact Network Australia, the Workshop initiated and enabled dialogue about new ways to strengthen the rule of law in order to build stable and fair societies, where business can flourish, locally and within the Asia Pacific region. Read more Back to top
"There can be no Rule of Law unless there is access to the basic sources of law."
— TJ Vilijoen, CEO, LexisNexis Asia Pacific
Rule of Law cannot exist without a transparent legal system, the main components of which are a clear set of laws that are freely and easily accessible to all, strong enforcement structures, and an independent judiciary to protect citizens against the arbitrary use of power by the state, individuals or any other organisation. Read moreBack to top
Advancing the rule of law around the world is a concept that unifies our company across the globe and is passionately supported by the people of LexisNexis.
Advancing Together is free bi-annual publication that brings together views and insights from thought leaders in the legal sphere, delving into current affairs and developments that impact the advancement, and in some cases the erosion, of the rule of law in Asia Pacific.
"In March 2015, LexisNexis held a Pacific Consultation Workshop in Sydney with the critical purpose of ensuring that our region is included in a global framework. It will ultimately take the form of a guide for all businesses on how they can support the rule of law. In collaboration with the local United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the Workshop initiated and enabled dialogue related to new ways in which to strengthen the rule of law in order to build stable and fair societies, where business can flourish locally and within our region." Read more
— Jo Beckett, General Manager, Australia
Download the latest issue ↓ Subscribe →
"The Rule of Law is a fundamental driver for advanced societies, providing certainty and access to justice for individuals and corporations. Legal content and technology organisations interact on many levels to support the Rule of Law (local and global, online and print, free and commercial), connecting various stakeholders with authoritative content and rich data via a range of platforms and channels suited to the individual’s or organisation’s needs." Read more
— Marc Peter, Director of Sales and Marketing, UK
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