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	Point-in-Time Legislation Research
You are here: AustLII >> Research Projects >> 2008 >> Point-in-Time Legislation Research

Point-in-Time Legislation Research

Based on an AustLII ARC Linkage Project

Last updated 13 March 2008

Project outline

This project aims to develop a generic 'point in time' legislation system which can take legislation provided by the official legislation source from any jurisdiction (usually a Parliamentary Counsel’s Office), and to convert it into a consistent Point-in-Time version of the legislation (where every legislative change is represented) or at least to provide ‘historical versions’ (where something akin to ‘reprints’ at various past dates are provided, but not every legislative change). The result system allows a user easily to find what an Act or section stated at any given point in time (back to the commencement of the available data), to check on the different historical versions of any provision and to make comparisons between them.

The research challenge is to be able to deliver a consistent user experience in navigating and researching legislation which changes over time across legislation from numerous jurisdictions, despite the fact that each jurisdiction provides its legislation in many different formats (over which the publisher has little control), and also provides different ‘time slices’ of legislation.

AustLII’s software and approach (called ‘the Haymarket Model’) has first been applied successfully to NSW legislation, and is now being applied on an experimental basis to legislation from other jurisdictions. In the longer term AustLII aims to apply his technology to provide 'point in time'versions of all legislation databases available on AustLII, and on some other LIIs. Current implementations are below.

This research was initially supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant entitled 'Automating improvements to the authority and interactivity of legislation-like instruments, to benefit government and business performance.' This research involved the support of the following industry partners: New South Wales Parliamentary Counsel's Office; Australian Business Limited; and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

AustLII’s point-in-time approach is now being implemented in other projects for which AustLII obtains or seeks funding.

Point-in-Time Legislation – Current AustLII implementations

The Point-in-Time software is still under development and is limited in functionality and in the range of jurisdictions covered. (Please see the disclaimer below). The databases currently included are listed below.

• Earliest version held is usually earlier than these dates.
• The NSW database is updated weekly, the Qld and SA databases only annually or less frequently.

Examples

Because of the range of legislation available for NSW, the functionality of the system is best appreciated when browsing over this database. A page of NSW examples classifies the kinds of legislative changes the system is able to track, giving a number of examples of each. The QLD and SA databases have been included to demonstrate the ability of the system to work across different jurisdictions (ie different data sources). Examples from these jurisdictions are included below:

• NSW Examples Page
• NSW - s47 Road Transport (General) Act 1999
• Qld - s12 Corrective Services Act 2000
• SA - s104 Motor Vehicles Act 1959

Limitations

These databases are to be considered experimental, the current legislation databases (to which the standard disclaimer applies), remain our production system. While the Point-in-Time system provides a convenient way to view legislative changes over time, it should be crossed-checked against other sources. The limitations are explicitly set out below.

This version of the Point-in-Time system is able to track repeals, additions and amendments of provisions, parts and divisions and instruments. Major limitations of the current Point-in-Time system include:

• Commencement information - the current system does not deal with the full effect of amendments with difference commentment dates such as retrospective and prospective commencement of amendments. Users should check commencement details by clicking on the [Commencement] link at the top of every section.
• Renumbering of sections - the later (re-numbered) section does not yet link back to the earlier version.
• Some Acts cannot be processed by the PiT system because of structural inconsistencies in the data.

A list of other known significant issues (none as at March 2008) is maintained. Beyond this, this system has only newly been exposed to a wider audience and various problems are to be expected. In this regard feedback is highly valued.

Investigators

Chief Investigators (ARC Linkage Project): Andrew Mowbray (UTS), Philip Chung (AustLII) and Graham Greenleaf (UNSW), AustLII Co-Directors

Researchers: Armin Wittfoth and Trevor Roydhouse (Armin is the principal author of the ‘Haymarket legislation model’. Trevor is responsible for pre-processing of legislative data in some jurisdictions).

Publications

• Wittfoth A, Chung P, Greenleaf G and Mowbray A ‘Making Point-in-Time Legislation Generic’ [2005] CompLRes 23; Presented at 7th Law via Internet Conference, Vanuatu, 2005
• Wittfoth A, Chung P, Greenleaf G and Mowbray A 'What was the law at that point in time?' pgs 2-4 (NSW) Law Society Journal, May 2005; longer version available as Wittfoth A, Chung P, Greenleaf G and Mowbray A (2005), ‘AustLII’s Point-in-Time legislation system: A generic PiT system for presenting legislation’, paper distributed at public launch of the Point-in-Time legislation system, 7 April 2005.
• Wittfoth A (2004) ‘The Haymarket Legislation Model and a Practical Point-in-Time Navigation System’, paper distributed to Annual Meeting of Legal Information Institutes, Paris, November 2004
• Wittfoth A, Chung P, Mowbray A and Greenleaf G (2003) ‘Can One Size Fit All?: - AustLII’s Point-in-Time Legislation Project’, 5th Law via Internet Conference, Sydney, 2003
• Armin Wittfoth, Philip Chung, Andrew Mowbray, and Graham Greenleaf (2001) ‘Towards a Uniform Representation of Multi-jurisdictional Legislation-like Instruments’, 3rd Law via Internet Conference, Sydney, 2001