The Legal Information Institute (LII) is a
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
public service of
Cornell Law School that provides no-cost access to current
American and
international legal research sources online. Founded in 1992 by
Peter Martin and
Tom Bruce,
LII was the first law site developed on the internet.
LII electronically publishes on the Web the
U.S. Code,
U.S. Supreme Court opinions
An opinion is a judgement, Point of view (philosophy), viewpoint, or Proposition, statement that is not conclusive, as opposed to facts, which are truth, true statements.
Definition
A given opinion may deal with subjectivity, subjective matters ...
,
Uniform Commercial Code
The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), first published in 1952, is one of a number of uniform acts that have been established as law with the goal of harmonizing the laws of sales and other commercial transactions across the United States through U ...
, the US
Code of Federal Regulations
In the law of the United States, the ''Code of Federal Regulations'' (''CFR'') is the codification of the general and permanent regulatory law, regulations promulgated by the executive departments and agencies of the federal government of the ...
, several Federal Rules,
and a variety of other
American primary law materials.
[.] LII also provides access to other
national and
international sources, such as
treaties and
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
materials.
According to its website, the LII serves over 40 million
unique visitors per year.
Since its inception, the Legal Information Institute has inspired others around the world to develop namesake operations.
[ These services are part of the Free Access to Law Movement.
]
History
LII was established in 1992 at Cornell Law School by Peter Martin and Tom Bruce with a $250,000 multi-year startup grant from the National Center for Automated Information Research.United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
decisions and the US Code.[
In the early years of LII, Bruce developed ]Cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
the first web browser
A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...
for Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
.IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
has distributed its IRS Tax Products DVD with LII's version of 26 USC (Internal Revenue Code).
LII Supreme Court Collection and LII Bulletin
LII has an extensive collection of law from the Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
.
by party name
an
.
LII Supreme Court Bulletin
is LII's free Supreme Court email-based subscriber and web-based publication service.[.] The Bulletin provides subscribers with two distinct services.[.] The first is a notification service. LII Bulletin emails subscribers with timely notification of when the US Supreme Court has handed down a decision.[ LII selectively recruits second- and third-year students of the Cornell Law School to comprise the LII Bulletin editorial board.][ The Bulletin editorial board is responsible for every aspect of the journal's management, from selecting decisions for commentary to researching, writing, editing, and producing the journal content in HTML.
]
Wex Legal Dictionary and Encyclopedia
LII publishes the ''Wex Legal Dictionary/Encyclopedia''. It is a freely available legal reference, but editing is restricted. Once vetted, and subject to approval, qualified legal experts are allowed to post and edit entries on legal topics within Wex. Wex has since 2020 been continuously edited and supplemented by the Wex Definitions Team, a group of supervised Cornell Law student editors.
Similar institutions
* Free Access to Law Movement unites many similar institutions, including
** AfricanLII
** AustLII
** BAILII
** CanLII
** HKLII
** NZLII
** PacLII
** SAFLII
** WorldLII
* Free Law Project
See also
* Legal awareness
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Cornell University
Free Access to Law Movement
Law of the United States
Legal research institutes
Law dictionaries