Organizing a Cognitive Community to Open the Access to Legal Information. The case of OpenJustice.be

This article proposes a both re'exive and critical analysis of OpenJustice.be, a Belgian community that emerged in April 2020. !is community aimed to address the longstanding strugles with judicial modernization in Belgium, particularly the online access to law and justice. How did the OpenJustice.be initiative emerge and develop into a cognitive community, before suddenly fading away? To answer this question, the authors first depict the genesis of this citizen-led project, emphasizing the “openness discourse” and the open devices developed by this growing community. !e analysis then looks at the type of community formed by its members, before discussing the practical critique addressed by OpenJustice.be, and highlighting the fading away of the community. As the three co-authors of this article were also involved in the life of OpenJustice.be, this paper provides a grounded, reflexive, and critical analysis of a project driven by openness and digital commons.