Open access to information. It’s a prime tenet of the Internet. It’s fostering science through wide and virtually instant communication of massive amounts of scientific data through open access journals such as the Public Library of Science, commonly known as PLoS.
The UK Supreme Court also gets "open access," as described in recent posts on the UKSC Blog. As described in this post, the UKSC is now using YouTube to disseminate its judgments. The post also goes on describe even more information that could be communicated, such as hearing transcripts. Dissemination on YouTube follows up on one of the Court’s members (Lord Neuberger) previously commenting on the need for more public dissemination of information abouts its workings and judgments, all covered in this post by the UKSC blog. The following is a key quote from Lord Neuberger’s comments, as provided by the blog:
"Judgments are the means through which the judges address the litigants and the public at large, and explain their reasons for reaching their conclusions. Judges are required to exercise judgement – and it is clear that without such judgement we would not have a justice system worthy of the name – and they give their individual judgement expression through their Judgments. Without judgement there would be no justice. And without Judgments there would be no justice, because judicial decisions, at least in civil and family law, without reasons are certainly not justice: indeed, they are scarcely decisions at all. It is therefore an absolute necessity that Judgments are readily accessible. Such accessibility is part and parcel of what it means for us to ensure that justice is seen to be done, to borrow from Lord Hewart CJ’s famous phrase."
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