New laptops for Iraqi judges

BAGHDAD, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- The United States, acting with the United Nations, purchased 40 additional laptops loaded with 90 years of Iraqi laws to distribute to legal professionals.

The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division operated under an initiative sponsored by the U.N. Development Program and the U.S. State Department to develop a software suite comprised of the Iraqi code of law from 1917 to the present.

The purchase of the 40 additional laptops follows the distribution of 250 laptops handed out to Iraqi judges and judicial opinion leaders. Spc. Wallis Lacey, a 21-year-old paralegal with the 3rd I.D., worked through an interpreter to train legal professionals in the use of the software and in basic computer skills.

Lacey trained groups of 15-18 judges in four-hour seminars meant to bring the paper-based Iraqi legal code into the 21st century. The computers use an Arabic keyboard and a search database based on conventional keyword search technology.

The program comes from a March 2007 directive from the commanding general of the 3rd I.D., Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, who advocated a program meant to enhance the prosecutorial capabilities of the Iraqi legal system, increase prison capacity and make the Iraqi police and court system more efficient.

The 40 additional laptops came at the request of Iraqi judges using the initial 250 judicial computers.

"The systems and software installed previously were so well received, that requests for additional systems came in non-stop," Lacey said.

Lt. Col. Christopher Royer with the 3rd I.D.'s Rule of Law program said the new automation brings the Iraqi legal code into a self-contained system compiling historic Iraqi legal codes, provisions from the U.S.-led transition government, the new Iraqi Constitution and all its amendments.