WikiLaw has been launched. It’s an interesting idea, but I am not so sure that this is one of those things where a Wiki is the best solution. Plus, they make some claims which I find a little odd -

However, unlike other libraries, there are no geographic or financial barriers to accessing this information. Everything on this site is free!

But I’m not entirely sure how this project will differentiate from World Legal Information Institute and its national counterparts, which also benefit from having review boards, access to some existing Review publications, and funding from law schools.

The way the treatise topics are laid out on the front page reminds me very much of existing commerical commentary products.

Who is Wikilaw for? Practitioners? The interested public? I wonder if the founders of Wikilaw got carried away by thinking about the technology, rather than how the information will be contributed or used. I am a big wiki fan, and I use and contribute to Wikipedia, but it is not the perfect model for all types of information. Wikilaw would be more useful, in my opinion, if it had a review board and closed membership.

That said, their section on Democracy 2.0 is a better use of wiki technology for law and I’ll be following that section with interest.