Contrary to popular belief, there are many laws in force in Palestine today apart from the Israeli Military Orders. However, these laws come from many different sources (Ottoman, British Mandate, Jordanian, Egyptian) and are not found in one location or collection Therefore, before a proper legal analysis can be performed on the future needs of the law in Palestine, there has to be a systematic accounting of the laws presently in force, and these laws have to be collected in one place.
The Law Center has therefore embarked on a systematic inventory of legislation in force in the Palestinian Territories. This project, entitled "The Palestinian Legislative Compilation Project", will produce a paper copy of all the laws in force in the West Bank and Gaza, categorized into 20 topics. There will also be an automated referential database containing information on each piece of legislation, allowing the user to quickly identify a relevant piece of legislation and its location. It is expected that this project will be completed by the end of 1996. The project is being carried out under contract with the Ministry of Justice and is funded by the World Bank.
Some of the results of the compilation are to be presented in discussion and training seminars, and will be prepared for publication. Further, a critique of topics with suggestions for future amendments will be made, as well as noting the differences between what is in force in Gaza and what is in force in the West Bank. This research activity will also have the effect of developing Palestinian experts in each area of law, who can then be called upon by the Palestinian Authority in order to contribute to drafting legislation. The compilation for each topic will be given to the Palestinian Law Commission which can use them as a starting point for drafting new laws.
This project is the basis for the creation of the Palestinian legal computer databank which the Center is also developing.
With the signing of the Palestinian-Israeli accords, Palestinian legislative and judicial activity has resumed on an entirely new basis. For the first time, there is legislation and jurisprudence that is specifically Palestinian. Following and documenting this legal activity is a necessary and irreplaceable task.
In conjunction with the Palestinian Legislative Compilation Project, the Law Center is developing an ambitious computerized legal database which will contain all the laws in force in Palestine, as well as new legislation as it comes into force, and commentary on Palestinian legal activities, with the aim of offering retrieval facilities to local and foreign researchers.
The Palestinian Legal Information System (PLIS) project will include databases of full-text in Arabic, images of original sources, referential or bibliographic records with cross-references or relations between laws, advanced search and retrieval methods such as hypertext and Boolean logic using controlled vocabulary, etc. The material will include all legislation, treaties, and at a later date jurisprudence, in addition to information about useful references and services to legislators, jurists and other users of the system. We have been collecting information about legal and judicial information systems from other countries in the region (Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia) and elsewhere (France, U.K., Australia). We would also very much welcome any input on these topics, information, know-how, full or sample products, on-line available sites etc.
There are already two data bases:
1. Qaidam: A referential (bibliographic) data base of laws in force in the Palestinian Territories, including legislation enacted in all the periods of the twentieth century: Ottoman, Jordanian in the West Bank, Egyptian in the Gaza StripGaza, Israeli in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Authority laws. Microsoft Access (Arabic/English) is used.
2. Qanoun: A working model of a full text data base (in English only as yet). It uses Intranet (WAIS) search and indexing engines under Windows NT 4.0.
As mentioned above, the legal compilation and databank will provide
an essential starting point for the applied research activities
in the Center and in Palestine generally.