Public legal information should be open: free for everyone, everywhere.
Open Law Africa provides technical, strategic and programmatic support for legal information digitization projects across Africa, and the world.
Who we are
We are a community of legal information digitisation experts working with academics, lawyers, judges, government printers, NGOs, international funders and human rights activists, to digitise African legal information for public use.
Open Law Africa is founded by AfricanLII.org and Laws.Africa.
Open law supports human rights, access to justice, business and communities
Over three million users access our African open law content every year, and 1 in 2 users visit our websites daily.
By Africans, for Africans
We help African Goverments to digitise and publish up-to-date primary legal information.
Open Law Africa partners provide capacity building, support, technology, benchmarking and skills exchanges.
News and Insights about digitisation of African law
Open Law Africa is active in 15 African countries. Read our blog to learn about our latest initiatives and case studies.
African Law Index
The African Law Index shows that over 90% of surveyed African countries do not provide the essentials of free access to legal information, including legislation, court judgments and official government gazettes.
Copyright in African Legal Information
Legal information is in the public domain in 53 out of 55 African countries.
Read our research and find out if your country is one of the 53 with a permissive copyright regime enabling open access to legal information. Legal and Policy information from the African Union is in the public domain.
Impact Testimonials
Magistrates
“I even use ZimLII during a recess before I deliver a judgment on an issue.
Prior to the availability of ZimLII, Magistrates tended to ask the lawyers appearing before them for hard copies of the legal material they presented in court.”
— Nowell Mupeiwa
REGIONAL MAGISTRATE, HARARE MAGISTRATES’ COURTS
Journalists
“Besides using ZimLII for our organisations, I pick cases from ZimLII which I then discuss in a column in the Sunday Mail. That way legal information reaches a much wider audience. Many people don’t get to hear about the law. People read it, because I get a lot of feedback.”
— Sylvia Chirawu-Mugomba
DIRECTOR, WOMEN IN LAW IN SOUTHERN AFRICA (WILSA) (ZIMBABWE)
Legal Aid- Law Clinics
"KenyaLaw is my staple for finding reliable, trustworthy, updated content... it is an integral part of my life as a law student and entrepreneurial law clinician. The alternative would be going through physical copies of the Kenya Law Reports, and you don't have a CTRL+F [in-page keyword search] for that!"
— Tasneem Pirbhai
CLINICIAN, STRATHMORE LAW CLINIC (KENYA)
