Open Legal Resources (FR0015)

STAKES
Understanding of law and access to justice are the pillars of the Rule of Law. In a digital era, this ambition is not restricted to diffusing content of the law but requires also accessibility to jurisprudence, the possibility for all citizens to develop innovative tools or services based on this content (thanks to its availability in open data), and the ability to stimulate and successfully mobilize citizens' expertise and contributions.

CONTEXT & AIM
France already has created in 2001 a major public service for the dissemination of law over the Internet. According to the terms of decree No. 2002-1064 dated on August 7th, 2002 amended, on the public service for the dissemination of law over the Internet, the site Légifrance is intended to facilitate public access to texts in force as well as to jurisprudence. It already provides free, universal access to all sources of law (legislative and regulatory texts, treaties, codes, jurisprudence of the Constitutional Council, the Council of State and the French Supreme Court, etc.). The open-data provision of legal data and data relating to a legal bill or its preparation allows citizens to better understand the entire legislative process, develop tools or applications from this data and participate actively in the democratic debate.
The opening of legal data is thus at the core of governmental action, with the open-data publication of the databases of the Legal and Administrative Information Department (DILA) of the Prime Minister’s Office, and the establishment of the "Open Law" program. This program has given rise to numerous innovative applications developed by start-ups, researchers and companies, which were then rewarded. The publication in open data of the Official Bulletin of Public Contract Declarations (BOAMP), the Civil and Commercial Announcements Official Bulletin (BODACC) and the Mandatory Legal Notices Official Bulletin (BALO) will complement this approach. 20 Lastly, the consultation of citizens on government bills or before their preparation enables the construction of effective public decisions may revitalizes democracy. When preparing the Digital Bill, the French Digital Council coordinated an online consultation over six months (see details and data in the "methodology" appendix). It demonstrated the extent and ability of administrations and civil society to commit to these processes.

ROADMAP
• Continue the open-data provision of legal and legislative resources that already exist - Continue the opening of legal data in reusable formats
• Continue the collaborative process with civil society for the production of innovative services and open source tools facilitating the understanding of texts and their preparation
• On the Digital Bill, continue the participative process in collaboration with civil society by opening the draft bill (“avant projet de loi”) to consultation for citizens to comment it and suggest amendments

✪12. Further expand the opening of legal resources & the collaboration with civil society on opening the law

Commitment Text:

ROADMAP

· Continue the open-data provision of legal and legislative resources that already exist

o  Continue the opening of legal data in reusable formats

· Continue the collaborative process with civil society for the production of innovative services and open source tools facilitating the understanding of texts and their preparation

· On the Digital Bill, continue the participative process in collaboration with civil society by opening the draft bill (“avant projet de loi”) to consultation for citizens to comment it and suggest amendments

Editorial Note: This is a partial version of the commitment text. For the full commitment text please see France's national action plan: https://bit.ly/2MTYhsR.

Responsible Institutions: Prime Minister's Office; Ministry of the Economy, Industry and the Digital Sector; Ministry of State for State Reform and Simplification attached to the Prime Minister

Supporting Institution(s): N/A

Start Date: Not Specified 

End Date: Not Specified

Commitment Aim

This commitment sought to publish legal information in open data and reusable formats and encourage the reuse of data through collaborative innovation and tools that facilitate the process and understanding of law-making. This commitment also aimed to experiment with increased citizen participation in law-making through the draft Digital Republic Bill, which has since been opened up to review by citizens via a digital platform. This changed method of law-making is unprecedented in France.

The opening of legal data in France started in 2014 with civil society projects such as “Manufacture of the Law” from the association Regards Citoyens, which allows citizens to follow the evolution of texts voted upon in Parliament.^{[Note83: Available at https://www.lafabriquedelaloi.fr/ (accessed 13 April 2018).]} On the government side, the Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (DILA) has opened all of its data as part of the open data policy announced after the 18 December 2013 meeting of the inter-ministerial Committee for the Modernisation of Public Action (CIMAP). At this meeting, the government made two important decisions: to set up the principle of free reuse of public data by stopping the creation of new royalties; and making certain data free, including those of the DILA.

Status

Midterm: Substantial

This commitment was substantially implemented by the midterm. Regarding open data provision of legal data, the DILA opened some case law data in September 2015, which is published on Légifrance on behalf of the State Council and the Court of Cassation. Under the Open Law Europa programme, DILA, the Open Law association, and their partners made several proposals on how to encourage reuse of this new information. The government also encouraged the development of open source tools. Created January 2015, Open Law is an innovation and digital co-creation project designed to encourage the opening up of data and resources on legislation, and to encourage collaborative innovation among public administrations, civil society organisations and the private sector. Open Law also coordinates the Legal Tech French community and innovative lawyers. Lastly, the public consultation on the Digital Republic Bill was opened on a dedicated platform, tracking changes to the text of the bill. Information received during the consultation was published on data.gouv.fr and a Digital Republic hackathon took place on 12 December 2015. The National Assembly passed the Digital Republic Bill into law in November 2016. A proposal was submitted in Parliament on 20 April 2016 to make online public consultations the norm for all bills before they go to Parliament. The proposal was inspired by the success of the Digital Bill consultation. For more information, please see the IRM midterm report.^{[Note84: Independent Reporting Mechanism, France Rapport D'ètape (OGP, 2017), https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2001/01/France_Progress-Report_2015-2017.pdf.]}

End of Term: Substantial

At the end of the implementation period, this commitment is considered to be substantially completed. The government engaged in activities aiming to facilitate access to information, such as the adoption of the Digital Republic Law, and to encourage civic participation through new public consultations on bills. The Digital Republic Law is still not fully implemented, especially regarding opening judicial decisions, therefore the commitment is not considered to be fully completed.

In the second year of implementation, the Digital Republic Bill was adopted (November 2016) with two articles addressing access to judicial decisions. Articles 20 and 21 provide for open access to judicial decisions, within the limits of respect for people's privacy. Personal privacy a concern for State Secretary for Digital Affairs Axelle Lemaire, who was worried that analysing decisions for personal privacy issues would be an obstacle to open data.^{[Note85: NextImpact, Mise en Open Data des décisions de justice : un rapport attendu pour fin octobre (Sept. 2017), https://www.nextinpact.com/news/105283-mise-en-open-data-decisions-justice-rapport-attendu-pour-fin-octobre.htm. Moreover, regarding jurisprudential data, the government published a white paper in January 2017, formulising the results of the open caselaw programme. This paper[Note86: Available here: http://fr.calameo.com/read/005075651e5c75eb4e579 (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).] informed discussions on the implementation of the Digital Republic Law. A decree specifying the implementation of the opening of legal resources of the law has yet to be adopted.[Note87: Ministère de l'économie et des finances, La loi pour une République numérique (17 May 2017), https://www.economie.gouv.fr/republique-numerique (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).] Information from the Ministry of Justice, gathered by Xavier Berne, indicates that the implementation of these articles would need to be gradual and would most probably take several years.[Note88: NextImpact, Mise en Open Data des décisions de justice : un rapport attendu pour fin octobre.} 

In May 2017, the new Minister of Justice commissioned a study on the implementation of Articles 20 and 21 of the Digital Republic Law by Loïc Cadiet, a law professor at La Sorbonne. Sorbonne worked with a member of the Council of State, a member of the Court of Cassation, a representative of the national bar association, a representative of the National Commission of Information and Liberties (CNIL), and representatives from various courts and administrative jurisdictions. The initial publication of the report was planned for the end of October 2017^{[Note89: La Gazette des communes, Où en est l'ouverture des données de jurisprudence ? (29 Sept. 2017), http://www.lagazettedescommunes.com/526366/ou-en-est-louverture-des-donnees-de-jurisprudence/ (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).]} but has been rescheduled for the end of November 2017.^{[Note90: NextImpact. Le rapport sur la mise en Open Data des décisions de justice reporté à fin novembre (6 Nov. 2017), https://www.nextinpact.com/brief/le-rapport-sur-la-mise-en-open-data-des-decisions-de-justice-reporte-a-fin-novembre-1031.htm.]}

Regarding open source tools, an OGP Open Toolbox, developed by Etalab, French civic tech groups, and international partners, was presented at the OGP Summit in December 2016. The association, OGPToolbox.org, was created in February 2017 to ensure the toolbox was implemented and used. In February 2017, the OGP Toolbox contained 1,230 tools. The responsibility for the toolbox was moved from the state to civil society. Stakeholders have indicated that the management of the toolbox has been put on hold for the moment.^{[Note91: Members of Démocratie ouverte and Open source politics, personal communication with IRM researcher, 27 Oct. and 1 Nov. 2017.]} The objective of OGP Toolbox is to identify promising open source tools and to function as a repository. The association hopes to assist CSOs and public institutions worldwide in choosing the most appropriate advocacy and training tools to progressively open data and facilitate civic participation and public accountability. A board member of OGPToolbox stated that the association has helped setting up the cooperative Mednum,^{[Note92: More information available here: https://lamednum.coop/.]} which specialises in digital mediation. OGP Toolbox will start soon a project assisting the Conférence d'Afrique Francophone sur les Données Ouvertes (CAFDO) in providing the coordinating organisation (to be announced) with the necessary digital tools and knowledge to promote open data in francophone Africa.^{[Note93: Board member OGP Toolbox, personal communication with IRM researcher, 9 Nov. 2017.]}

Lastly, public consultations have been used to encourage the public to participate in law-making for a few additional bills since the pilot consultation on the Digital Republic Law. The government self-assessment lists the biodiversity and citizenship equality laws as examples. A synthesis report is available for the consultation on the equality and citizenship law.^{[Note94: Available here: https://www.egalite-citoyennete-participez.gouv.fr/media/default/0001/01/e758ede1b4919b5139ddb39e3eda5aacd82b522e.pdf (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).]} The consultations are organised either through a dedicated website, as was the case for the Digital Republic Law, or through the organisation Parlement &Citoyens,^{[Note95: Available here: https://parlement-et-citoyens.fr/projects (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).]} as was the case for the biodiversity law.

Did It Open Government?

Access to Information: Marginal

Civic Participation: Marginal

A number of developments have facilitated access to legal information. DILA has opened access to new legal information and an Open Law organisation was set up by Etalab, DILA and NUMA.^{[Note96: Company specialised in digital innovations.]} The adoption of the Digital Republic Law also is a significant step toward creating a legal obligation to improve access to legal information. However, at the end of the action plan implementation period, the law has yet to be fully implemented and therefore, there remains no decree mandating the opening of judicial data.

At the outset of this commitment, its potential impact was assessed as transformative but the major concern for implementation of the commitment was that it relied heavily on the successful passage of the Digital Republic Bill, which had not happened by the midterm IRM report. The Bill was passed during the second year of implementation but in the interim nine months between the adoption of the Bill and the end of the action plan period, actual change in government practice in terms of access to information was marginal as the law is not yet fully implemented and faced privacy challenges in the Constitutional Court.

The government has taken several steps to collaborate with civil society, especially the civic tech community, and develop tools to facilitate public participation. The government held a number of public consultations on bills prior to parliamentary debates, which is a new government practice. The consultations, however, are still experimental and there is a need to institutionalise the process. Transparency International France recommends that a reference document and a standard methodology be developed for public online consultations,^{[Note97: Transparency International France (comment), “Engagement 12 : Poursuivre l'ouverture des ressources juridiques et la collaboration avec la société civile autour de l'élaboration de la loi | Rapport d'autoévaluation à mi-parcours du Plan d'action pour la France 2015-2017 “‘Pour une action publique transparente et collaborative'” (Etalab, July 2016), https://forum.etalab.gouv.fr/t/engagement-12-poursuivre-louverture-des-ressources-juridiques-et-la-collaboration-avec-la-societe-civile-autour-de-lelaboration-de-la-loi-rapport-dautoevaluation-a-mi-parcours-du-plan-daction-pour-la-france-2015-2017-pour-une-action-publique-transparente-et-collaborative/1914/2 (accessed 1 Oct. 2017).]} which indicates that standardised methodology for consultations does not yet exist. The midterm IRM report and the government self-assessment refer to a proposal submitted to Parliament on 20 April 2016 to make online public consultations the norm for all bills before parliamentary debates. The proposal was forwarded to the Law Commission though at the time of writing this report, it does not seem to have been taken any further.^{[Note98: National Assembly, “Généralisation de la consultation publique en ligne, par l'internet, sur les textes de loi avant leur examen par le Parlement” (accessed 1 Oct. 2017), http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/dossiers/consultation_publique_textes.asp.}

] As such, this commitment marginally opened government with respect to civic participation.

Carried Forward?

This commitment was not carried over to the next action plan.