Zambia Legal Information Institute (ZamLII) workshop, 26 April 2013 at Pamodzi Hotel, Lusaka.
Although Zambia was among the first countries in Africa to provide free access to law, the policy and legal issues arising from such access have never been adequately discussed in Zambia. As plans are underway to revive ZamLII, it is hoped that the forthcoming workshop will also be an occasion to re-launch the activities of this important legal resource.
The workshop will deliberate some of the pertinent consequences of increased public access to digital legal information in the Zambian setup such as copyright in legislation and privacy of personal information in case law. It is notable that most of the existing case law collection on ZamLII contains sensitive personal information about litigants, their property and personal life. This practice raises serious concerns relating to whether or not litigants have privacy of personal information on the one hand and whether such privacy should be balanced against the public right to access judicial information.
The one-day workshop will be attended by the various stakeholders drawn from the Judiciary, Parliament, the universities and the legal fraternity. It is expected that the workshop will reach consensus on rethinking policy and legal issues relating to access to digital legal information in Zambia.
Program
09:00-09:15 Opening of workshop by acting deputy Chief Justice Florence Mumba
Introduction
09:15-10:00 Introduction to digital law (SAIPAR)
Background to the Zambia Legal Information Institute and the Free
Access to Legal Information Movement (FALM) (SAIPAR)
10:00-10:30 Break
Public access to digital law in Zambia: constraints and opportunities
10:30-11:00 National Assembly (Clerk of NA)
11:00-11:30 Law Association of Zambia
Copyright and privacy: best practices in other countries
11:30-12:30 Copyright in legislation (AfricanLII)
Privacy of personal information (anonomyzation) (AfricanLII)
12:30-14:00 Lunch break
Copyright and privacy in Zambia
14:00-15:30 Copyright and privacy, developing best practice for Zambia (AfricanLII facilitator)
15:30-16:00 Break
16:00-17:00 Reception
Speech by LAZ
