The Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship is a public statement related to ensuring the

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

of legal information and scholarship. It was written in 2008 by a group of library directors from

law schools A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, l ...

in the United States.

Background and development

In 2007, Richard Danner presented two different papers arguing that

John Willinsky John Willinsky (born 1950) is a Canadian educator, activist, and author. Willinsky is currently on the faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Education where he is the Khosla Family Professor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada a ...

's open access principles were also applicable to legal scholarship and information. He also presented information on the work

Duke University School of Law Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit th ...

had done to improve electronic access to journals and faculty scholarship. In October 2008, Danner met with library directors from 11 other law schools at Duke's campus in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

to discuss the topic. The resulting statement issued by the group called for all

law school A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

s to stop publishing their

law journals A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...

in print format and to rely instead on

electronic publication Electronic publishing (also referred to as publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the editing ...

coupled with a commitment to keep the electronic versions available in stable, open, digital formats. An important motivation underlying this call was not only improving access, but also that "very few law journals receive enough in subscription income and

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

to cover their costs of operation."

Response and legacy

In a discussion of the Durham Statement published two years after it was issued, Danner noted that " hecall to end print publication of law reviews was more controversial than that regarding open access." Law librarians have raised questions about the ability to effectively digitally preserve materials and whether the "stable, open, digital formats" the statement suggests are more of an ideal than an attainable goal.

References

{{Open access navbox Open access statements