saflii

The Southern African Legal Information Institute (SAFLII) was established in December 2006 as one of a growing number of Institutes operating under the Free Access to Law Movement.

Between  2007 and November 2014, SAFLII was hosted by the Constitutional Court Trust.  SAFLII is now housed in the Rights and Governance Unit at the University of Cape Town.

SAFLII solicits judgments handed down by courts and other forums in South Africa and the broader southern and east African regions. It works through a network of secretaries and other officials based at the local courts, through which it obtains written transcripts of judgments. These are then processed into a variety of electronic formats and published on its website, www.saflii.org.  In addition, citations, headlines and other data, as well as hyperlinks to other materials published on SAFLII, are inserted into the text.

The value of SAFLII is derived in part from the enhanced accountability of Judges that results when their judgments are published and freely accessible. SAFLII’s collections also support and encourage comparative legal research and judicial activism by providing open access to legal information from the region.

SAFLII has recently partnered with OR Tambo Law Library at the University of Pretoria to produce and publish up-to-date (consolidated versions) of South African legislation for free access to the public.

SAFLII’s work has been generously supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Open Society Foundation (South Africa) and the Rhodes Trust Fund.