Estonian Bar Association and University of Tartu make an anniversary gift to Estonia

On 20 June, a cooperation agreement was signed by the Estonian Bar Association and the University of Tartu, aiming to support the development of high-quality Estonian Wikipedia and to appreciate and highlight Estonian-language wiki articles on law and the Bar. The cooperation is a part of the University of Tartu’s Million+ project, which hopes to raise the number of Estonian Wikipedia articles to one million by the year 2020. The prize fund of the article competitions is 3000 euros.

According to Chairman of the Estonian Bar Association Hannes Vallikivi, cooperation with the Estonian national university is important for the Bar. The existence and availability of Estonian-language law articles is a prerequisite for the high quality of our legal system. Wikipedia articles give a good opportunity for the wider population to get familiar with legal topics,” said Vallikivi.

According to Director of UT School of Law Peep Pruks, “The experience of writing a good wiki article could incite a more serious interest in the student in topics important for the Bar Association and lead to writing, for example, articles for the Juridica journal. Maintaining and developing high-level legal terminology in Estonian is the common interest of the Bar Association and the Estonian national university.”

In the course of cooperation, the Estonian Bar Association and the University of Tartu organise three article competitions to find the best Estonian-language law or the Bar-related Wikipedia articles written by UT students or academic staff. The three article competitions take place in 2018–2019 and mark the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia in 2018, the 100^th anniversary of the Estonian Bar Association in spring 2019 and the 100^th anniversary of the Estonian-language School of Law at the end of 2019. The prize fund of the article competitions is 3000 euros.

“The Estonian legal terminology and general information should be easily available in today’s information era. Wikipedia as an open online encyclopaedia is an important carrier of information, and specialists of all specialities should contribute to creating high-quality content for Wikipedia. Each new article is a significant contribution to the future of the Estonian language – terminology and general information stored in Wikipedia can easily be found both by common users and by language-technological devices,” said Million+ Project Manager Sirli Zupping.

The competitions for law and the Bar Association articles aim to appreciate the Estonian legal language and offer students a chance to make their contribution to the development of the Estonian language. The article competitions help to increase the number of law-related articles and make the terminology of legal language available in the Estonian Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia development project Million+, initiated by the University of Tartu Vice Rector for Academic Affairs Mart Noorma, has developed into a collective venture and is one of the biggest anniversary presents to Estonia. The project helps to considerably quicken the achievement of one million articles in the Estonian Wikipedia. Million+ is a collective gift for the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.

Additional information:

Merike Ristikivi, UT Associate Professor in Legal History (Roman Law and Latin), 737 5396, merike.ristikivi@ut.ee

Sirli Zupping, Million+ Project Manager, 5615 5993, sirli.zupping@ut.ee