The Classification of FOI Legislation

Many researchers observe the rapid development of FOI laws around the world and try to categorize these laws from their own benchmark. Roberts argued that there are three waves of FOI legislation around the world from political and economic perspective. Sebina expanded Roberts’ model and analyzed Roberts’ model from the picture of records management. Kubicer, from the links between FOI and information technology, stated that there are three generation of FOI legislation around the world. Ackerman and Ballesteros, from historic perspective, observed that there are four categories of countries with FOI legislation. Lamble wrote a thesis on Computer-assisted Reports and FOI and observed that there are two models of FOI legislation around the world. One is the open Swedish model and the other is a less transparent United States’ model. Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative carried out a research on the concept of FOI legislation and suggested that there are three models of FOI legislation around the world, including the FOI legislation in Sweden, the U.S. and other countries which adopted their legislation in the past two decades