When we started Qanoon.om in 2015, we did not anticipate that it will transform the way Omani society accesses the law and engages with it. This tool that we created to fulfil our own immediate need for a resource to locate Omani legislation somehow became the most important legal resource that judges, lawyers, and government officials use on a daily basis to uphold the rule of law, defend the rights of people, and give vital legal advice. Qanoon has become one of the most critical resources for teaching law in Oman and SQU’s College of Law links to it from its homepage, journalists in Oman use it for investigative reporting to produce evidence-based pieces that could not have been made possible without it, and United Nations bodies cite it in their official reports as the authority when evaluating Oman’s compliance with its obligations under international law. We also know that Qanoon is vital to some of the most vulnerable groups in society and that visually impaired Omanis used it to know their rights because Qanoon, unlike official resources, is compatible with screen reading technologies. It is no exaggeration to say that Qanoon has actually democratised Omani law and made access to Omani legislation in its original language the easiest and most convenient body of legislation to access in the entire Arab world.
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