Legal Information on the Web - can we trust the official version? Jules Winterton Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London International Association of Law Libraries Meeting - 17 th August 2007 Organisation of South African Law Libraries Johannesburg

Outline  Access to electronic legal information  US survey on authentication  Survey key findings  “Losing the Law”  Principles and core values  UK Statute Law Database  EU legislation  Wider responsibilities

Access to Electronic Legal Information Duty of law librarians to be concerned with the quality of published legal information Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee is a standing committee of AALL Assists courts, legislatures and government agencies to improve delivery of legal information to the public via the Internet Develops and promotes criteria and best practices to enhance public access to the sources of law

US survey on authentication Survey carried out by AALL in 2006 State-by-state report on authentication of online legal resources March pages available on web Inductive approach – learn from existing practice Goal: to determine which states, if any, have adopted website versions of primary legal resources as official and/or authentic

Survey Key Findings 1.States are discontinuing print official resources and substituting online official sources 2.Online Versions are the only official source in five states 3.Ten states & DC have designated as official one or more online primary legal resources 4.Eight states have ‘official traits’ but evidence of actual status of resources is conflicting

Survey Key Findings ctd. 5.States have not been sufficiently deliberate in their policies and practices 6.No state’s online primary legal resources are authenticated or afford ready authentication by standard methods 7.Nine states have provided for PPA for one or more of their online primary legal resources Generally significant numbers of online legal resources are official but none are authenticated and so are not sufficiently trustworthy

Losing the law Summit in Chicago ‘Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age’, April 2007 Primary legal materials Migration of official publishing from print to electronic Lack of policies to guarantee electronic versions ‘Losing the law: a call to arms’ Bob Berring 10 Green Bag 2d The Snowball of Disaster

Principles and Core Values AALL has adopted ‘Core Values Concerning Public Information on Government Web Sites’ in March 2007 Accessibility Official Status Reliability Comprehensiveness Preservation The goal is that online legal resources will be as trustworthy as print

Principles and Core Values - accessibility Information on government web sites must be accessible to all people Without charge Disability accessible Guidance Navigation Searchable Languages Web accessibility tools partnerships

Principles and Core Values - official status If an electronic version of legal information is official, it should be designated as such by statute or rule Certification mark on each item If electronic version is not official, official version should be named and user informed how to obtain it Official status requires authentication procedures

Principles and Core Values - reliability Information published on government web sites must be trustworthy and reliable Authenticity Appropriate safeguards for integrity encryption, digital signatures, PKI, “ chain of custody ” information Sufficient information to enable users to assess accuracy and currency Persistent URLs (PURLS)

Principles and Core Values - comprehensiveness Information published on government web sites should be comprehensive Full text Or instructions how to obtain full text Information should be complete Statutory and regulatory sites should include all provisions in force Any omissions e.g. maps should be clearly stated

Principles and Core Values - Preservation Information on government web sites must be preserved by the entity within government charged with preservation of government information Government must ensure continued access to all legal information Archives must be comprehensive, including supplements Snapshots of the complete underlying database content of dynamic sites should be taken regularly and archived Governments must plan effective methods and procedures to migrate information to newer technologies

UK Statute Law Database  SLD finally released for public use December 2006, begun in early 1990s  Free on the Internet at  ‘Official Revised Edition’  UK tradition of unusable legislation  3,500 Acts since 1272 and most SIs  Primary legislation in consolidated form  Point-in-time searching from 1991

European Union Legislation Binding force of EU legislation and publication Language versions and new accession states Late publication and availability Electronic v. print and ‘official versions’ Principles of adequate publication (not the UK) ‘The Binding Force of Babel’. Michal Bobek

Wider Responsibilities Do our organisations pass the tests? Creator has continuing responsibility Accessibility Life-cycle document management Retrieval Preservation Permanent access

Thank you !