BAILII vs Legal Information Institute

BAILII is a free web service for finding British and Irish case law, legislation, European case law, and other legal materials. Readers can search databases by keyword or browse by date and A–Z title list. Search help covers basic, advanced, multidatabase, citation, date, and Boolean searches, including AND, OR, and NOT. LawCite supports searching by citation, parties, court, jurisdiction, article title, author, year, and cases or legislation considered. Collections include case law, legislation, European Union case law, Law Commission reports, and other law-related material. The help section explains printing and downloading documents. BAILII says access requires no password and places no cookies on users’ machines. Its stated beneficiaries include pro bono organisations, neighbourhood law centres, students, and users in developing countries; legal practitioners and educators are also among its audiences. OpenLaw makes selected leading judgments and reports available for legal education. BAILII does not offer an API or permit bulk downloads, and says large-scale downloading may lead to blocked access. It invites commercial users and educational institutions to make annual donations, without specifying an amount.

Legal Information Institute (LII) is a free web resource publishing legal information and explanatory material for the public. Its collections include the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, state regulations, Supreme Court opinions, and federal rules. LII enriches government-published data by identifying, extracting, annotating, indexing, and presenting its features. Explanatory offerings include Wex, Supreme Court Bulletin previews, and case summaries in the Gender Justice Collection. Users can search case law and statutes and regulations, read commentary, and use citation tools. Read It Online accepts a formal case citation and returns links to free and paid judicial-opinion resources. Introduction to Basic Legal Citation is a free Bluebook alternative maintained by co-founder Peter Martin. Regulations from all 50 states and Washington, DC receive enhanced functionality. Coverage includes U.S. federal law, all states, and selected world law. The Free access plan costs nothing. LII does not provide legal advice or personalized research help.