Benefits of the Internet to Legal Research

Abstract

 Introduction

The Internet is a vast network of computers that facilitate international communication and collaboration. No one person or organization is responsible for overseeing it, it is a collective effort of many organizations and each is responsible for a portion of the network. It is practically made up of people, hardware and software.

The genesis of the Internet is the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the United States Department of Defence, which built a computer network in 1969 for communication among research scientists to avert nuclear disaster. The Internet is directed by the Internet Society (ISOC) which is made up of volunteers. The ISOC has a sub council — Internet Architecture Board (IAB) which works out issues of standards, network resources, addresses and so on.

The Internet is intended to support open research, education and instruction as well as communications that further these ends. Today with a strand of optical fiber, people can reach 90,000 volumes within a single second.

This article introduces the available resources on the Internet and it explains how they can be used to enhance legal research.