University of Cyprus, 18-19 October 2019
*** See the updated conference program ***
As the national implementation of ECLI is nearing its final stage in Cyprus, which is a mixed jurisdiction with strong common-law characteristics, the University of Cyprus and its partners in the CyECLI project are bringing together a number of experts on information law, legal information, comparative law and legal theory for a conference aimed at evaluating the implementation of ECLI and the potential to alter/improve/fulfill.
The Cyprus ECLI Conference will consider how the new digital environment ushered in by ECLI is shaped by – and shapes back in turn – the legal traditions of the Member States, the EU itself and the broader world that interacts with Europe.
The idea is to see the big picture, by locating the technical aspects and problems of legal information to a broader context, with comparative and theoretical undertones: namely, to think in terms of legal systems and especially the operation of administration of justice systems.
The conference aims to address the following themes:
- Case law in the modern European legal tradition
- Traditions of legal reporting and publishing of case law
- Stakeholders of digital legal information:
- Medium neutral citation and ECLI as a medium-neutral citation system
- Access to case law and data protection
See the complete Call for Papers in this link.
An open workshop will be held on Friday, 18 October in the afternoon. Material will be distributed only to pre-registered participants. Members of the Cyprus Bar Association must register via the CBA portal. Members of the University community and other interest participants must pre-register with the Department of Law at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (tel: +357 22892920).
A series of implementation workshops and additional activities will be held on Saturday, 19 October in the morning. Interested lawyers and IT professionals are invited to express their interest with the CyECLI team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Prof. Nikitas Hatzimihail.
Friday, 18 October 2019: Open Workshop
LC-012 Amphitheater, 14:30 - 17:30
14:00 – 14:30 Registration
14:30 – 14:40 Welcome Addresses
- Plenary Session
14:40 – 15:10 The “Oracles of the Law” in the Digital Age: From Law Reporting to ECLI and Interconnected Registries (Opening Lecture)
Nikitas Hatzimihail, Professor of Law, University of Cyprus / CyECLI
15:10 – 15:40 ECLI and the revised ECLI Council Conclusions: meeting many needs but not solving all problems (Keynote Lecture)
Marc van Opijnen, Netherlands Publications Office (UBR/KOOP)
15:40 - 16:00 Free Access to the Common Law: MNC and ECLI
Andrew Mowbray, University of Technology Sydney/AustLII
Philip Chung, University of New South Wales /AustLII
16:00 – 16:20 Open-access legal information in Cyprus
Laris Vrahimis, Advocate and Member of the Board, Cyprus Bar Association, Founder of CyLaw
16:20 - 16:30 Discussion
16:30 - 17:00 Coffee Break
- Legal and Technical Challenges — and Prospects — from ECLI Implementation
17:00 – 17:20 Access to National Case Law in the European Union: Towards Translation Obligations
Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi, Professor, University of Groningen
17:20 – 17:40 ECLI, AI and the wisdom of the crowd
Leo van der Wees, Advocate, Founder, Openrecht Foundation, Netherlands
17:40 – 18:00 ECLI implementation in the European Court of Human Rights case law
Emily Soteriou, European Court of Human Rights
18:00– 18:20 Anonymising legal decisions in electronic databases under the GDPR: Hypocrisy or Sincere Compliance?
George Yiannopoulos, Professor, University of Athens
18:20 — 18:40 Discussion
Saturday, 19 October 2019
Implementation Workshop
LC-017 Seminar Room
8:30 - 9:00 Registration
- Legal Information from a Comparative-Law Perspective
9:00 - 9:10 Comparative observations on ECLI implementation
Nikitas Hatzimihail, University of Cyprus
9:10 - 9.30 E-legal information in Africa
Salvatore Mancuso, University of Palermo
- Technical workshops
- Presentation and Demonstration of beta databases and technical specifications
- open discussion led by experts
9:40 - 10:30 Technical Workshop #1: ECLI Implementation in Cyprus
10:40 - 11:30 Technical Workshop #2: Compliance with data protection
11:40 - 12:30 Technical Workshop #3: Metadata: standards and utility
12:40 - 13:30 Technical Workshop #4: Interconnection
Coffee and snacks will be available
