The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2019 were announced at a ceremony in London on 13 March 2019. As well as celebrating excellence and innovation in the legal sector, the awards also shone a spotlight on initiatives promoting access to justice, diversity and the Rule of Law. As charity partner, the ILBF was delighted to be involved in this very special event.

Thanks to the generosity and support of the UK legal community, the ILBF is able to recycle good quality legal texts and give them a new lease of life in jurisdictions all over the world. LexisNexis has been a tremendous supporter of the ILBF since it was founded nearly 14 years ago. In that time, the ILBF has shipped 55,000 books to more than 190 organisations in 51 countries.

Access to good quality legal texts and research resources from the ILBF has an incredibly positive impact on the training of lawyers and judges, the administration of justice, the revision and updating of laws, and access to justice for whole communities.

‘The university believes that the books will significantly enrich our library and benefit our students, teachers and researchers immensely…this indeed has opened up a window of opportunities for the school of law to further benefit from such well-meaning non-profit organizations.’ Solomon Belayneh, Dean of the Law School, Wollo University.

‘These [books] will enrich the legal information available to court library users, judges, lawyers, and the public who access these libraries to conduct research…The PNG system is common law based and the library users will find these books very useful in enhancing their knowledge of the common law.’ Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, Sir Salamo Injia.

‘With the ILBF’s additions to our library, our ability to conduct rigorous legal research to inform and enrich the human rights litigation we support in a number of countries will be greatly strengthened and their value shared with the lawyers and organisations with whom we work to advance human rights and the rule of law.’ Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh Executive Director, Southern Africa Litigation Centre.

‘A lawyer needs to research extensively on different jurisdictions for him or her to be a knowledgeable, credible and reliable professional being. The book donations avail us with a wide range of information material we rely on for our research.’ Susan Kigula, graduate student on the African Prisons Project law programme.

The LexisNexis Legal Awards 2019 provided a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness of our work. The demand for legal texts from the UK is as great as ever. The generosity of the guests on the night means that we have raised a significant sum which will help to fund future shipments to organisations across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.

Access to legal texts and resources is something we take for granted in the UK, but for so many lawyers and judges around the world, this is just not the case. The ILBF is playing its part in equipping lawyers and judges now and in the future with the right resources to allow the rule of law and access to justice to flourish, and thereby contribute to the peaceful and democratic development of their countries. With the support of the legal community in the UK, the ILBF can continue to do that.

We would like to thank LexisNexis once again for selecting the ILBF as their charity partner for the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2019, and to all the guests for their generous support. Congratulations to all this year’s nominees and winners! For details, visit: LexisNexis Legal Awards 2019: Winners Brochure.

We wish everyone involved continued success in 2019.