Chung, Philip; Mowbray, Andrew; Greenleaf, Graham --- "Searching Legal Information in Multiple Asian Languages" [2012] UNSWLRS 22

Last Updated: 12 July 2012

Searching Legal Information in Multiple Asian Languages

Philip Chung, University of New South Wales
Andrew Mowbray, University of Technology Sydney
Graham Greenleaf, University of New South Wales

This paper is available for download at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2104022

Citation

This article* will be published in (2012) 13 Legal Information Management, Cambridge University Press, at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=LIM. This paper may also be referenced as [2012] UNSWLRS 22.

Abstract

In this article the Co-Directors of the Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) explain the need for an open source search engine which can search simultaneously over legal materials in European languages and also in Asian languages, particularly those that require a ‘double byte’ representation, and the difficulties this task presents. A solution is proposed, the ‘u16a’ modifications to AustLII’s open source search engine (Sino) which is used by many legal information institutes. Two implementations of the Sino u16A approach, on the Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (HKLII), for English and Chinese, and on the Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII), for multiple Asian languages, are described. The implementations have been successful, though many challenges (discussed briefly) remain before this approach will provide a full multi-lingual search facility.