itself are not the only aspects of increased accessibility. Many associations, organisations and individuals use their home pages to raise awareness of their functions and to promote their goals. Accessibility by e-mail allows quick contact and enables the researcher to obtain first-hand information on the latest developments or to verify the accuracy of information found elsewhere. The Internet also helps to bring down language barriers. With English being the language of the web community, there has been a considerabl increase in English-language publications. Particularly for research in the smaller countries, language does not pose the barriers it used to pose since these states have -to varying degrees -opened up and are publishing more information in English, sometimes including special introductions into their legal systems or state structure. 3.2 Searchability Searchability is a major feature of most computer-assisted tools for lega research. Apart from search engines that allow general web searches or searches of legal servers, the internal search options of databanks and other major sites help to locate relevant material. But the success of rd ch depends as much on the quality of the tool as it does on putting the query into meaningful and specific keywords Keyword search can be employed for academic literature, for researching case law as well as foreign legislation. For instance, the U. S. Library of Congress s Thomas server allows bill-tracking by topic, bill number or title. In the U.K., all Acts of Parliament(from 1996)s and all Statutory Instruments(from 1997)20 are not only available full-text,but are also searchable 3.3 Authenticity It does not require more than space on a servers hard drive and some knowledge of the relevant software to publish documents on the Internet. On the one hand, this ease of publishing means that the public can now benefit from material that formerly, due to cost or other reasons, usually were not published. On the other hand, the decentralised and uncontrolled character of the WWW means that there are also no limits to or checks on who publishes and what is published. In the pioneering days of the www, a great deal of information was provided by enthusiastic lay people who saw the possibility of open access to legalitself are not the only aspects of increased accessibility. Many associations, organisations and individuals use their home pages to raise awareness of their functions and to promote their goals. Accessibility by e-mail allows quick contact and enables the researcher to obtain first-hand information on the latest developments or to verify the accuracy of information found elsewhere. The Internet also helps to bring down language barriers. With English being the language of the web community, there has been a considerable increase in English-language publications. Particularly for research in the smaller countries, language does not pose the barriers it used to pose since these states have - to varying degrees - opened up and are publishing more information in English, sometimes including special introductions into their legal systems or state structure. 3.2 Searchability Searchability is a major feature of most computer-assisted tools for legal research. Apart from search engines that allow general web searches or searches of legal servers, the internal search options of databanks and other major sites help to locate relevant material. But the success of a keyword search depends as much on the scope and quality of the search tool as it does on putting the query into meaningful and specific keywords. Keyword search can be employed for academic literature, for researching case law as well as foreign legislation. For instance, the U.S. Library of Congress's Thomas(18) server allows bill-tracking by topic, bill number or title. In the U.K., all Acts of Parliament (from 1996)(19) and all Statutory Instruments (from 1997)(20) are not only available full-text, but are also searchable. 3.3 Authenticity It does not require more than space on a server's hard drive and some knowledge of the relevant software to publish documents on the Internet. On the one hand, this ease of publishing means that the public can now benefit from material that formerly, due to cost or other reasons, usually were not published. On the other hand, the decentralised and uncontrolled character of the WWW means that there are also no limits to or checks on who publishes and what is published. In the pioneering days of the WWW, a great deal of information was provided by enthusiastic lay people who saw the possibility of open access to legal