The Statutes on Lexis
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/3.1.51 |
| Pages | 51-55 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Year | 1982 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
The Statutes on LEXIS
By R. N. G. Harrison*
The practical difficulties confronting lawyers in securing access to an up-to-
date statement of the statute law currently in force has frequently been
commented on. As the Royal Commission on Legal Services observed: "The
public and die legal profession are oppressed by die present volume of legisla-
tion and by die difficulty of keeping up-to-date widi its provisions." If die word
legislation is to be read as embracing statutory instruments as well as statutes,
it is unlikely that any practitioner would take issue with that proposition.
If
asked
in what form he would, in an ideal world, like to have access to
statute law (in die wider
sense)
die practitioner would most probably say that
what was needed was a complete statement of die law, logically arranged and
therefore easily accessible, setting forth die texts in their current up-to-date
form. Although brave efforts have been made by HMSO and die legal
publishers to accomplish a partial realisation of diat ideal, die economics and
physical limitations of conventional publishing have ensured that it could
never die completely realised. The prospect ofbeing able
to
achieve
this end
by
die new computer based systems of information storage and retrieval was one
of die principal considerations taken into account by Butterworths when
deciding to introduce LEXIS into die United Kingdom.
Computer-Assisted Information Retrieval
Before explaining Butterworths' plans for establishing a "statutory database"
on LEXIS it would perhaps be useful to describe briefly bow systems such as
LEXIS operate.
The legal texts which constitute die "database" are stored on a computer in
such a way diat a person operating a visual display terminal connected to die
computer may retrieve and display particular items of text ("documents")
which match whatever
criteria
of relevance may be specified by die researcher.
The effectiveness of diis process depends on die relationship between die words
used and die ideas or concepts to which diose words give expression. The
researcher, relying on his own knowledge of die nature of die texts being
searched and of die subject-matter covered, determines what words or com-
binations of
words
are likely to occur in relevant documents. The words are
transmitted to die computer via die terminal in die form of a "search request"
The computer then scans die complete texts of all die documents identifying
diose diat contain die words specified.
It
can
dius
be
seen,
and experience has shown diat
a
system such
as
LEXIS
is
an extremely effective and powerful technique for making a fast and diorough
search oflargc volumes of text matter
in
order
to
retrieve relevant
items.
It is in
effect an extraordinarily efficient indexing system, its advantages being diat,
* B.A-, Barrister, Managing Director, Butterworth (Telepublishing) Ltd.
Note This article complement* the information on the
EUKOLSX
systems in f
1980]
Scat. L.R.
176—Editor.
51
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