Freedom of information spreads to Europe

Europe is gradually embracing freedom of information principles while at the same time restricting dissemination of information generated by public agencies through electronic databases. Both Britain and Germany are moving to adopt freedom of information laws, and the European Commission has published a regulation allowing access to European institution materials. These developments are important for the rest of the world, including the United States, because the Internet is already becoming a vast virtual Library facilitating global access to statutes, court decisions, and administrative agency decisions that make up the raw ingredients of a rule of law. Meanwhile, however, the European Commission issued a directive limiting certain uses of electronic databases, broadly enough drafted to include electronic repositories of primary legal information. This kind of state-sponsored monopoly over public information is inimical to a rule of law and democratic values. Europeans and Americans should work to realize the increased transparency promised by the freedom of information developments, and work to minimize the extent to which the database directive and similar proposals on this side of the Atlantic restrict redissemination of primary legal information.