Legal Information on the Web - can we trust the official version?

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

2. 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

3. 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 • http://www.aallnet.org/committee/aelic/index.html • 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

4. US survey on authentication • Survey carried out by AALL in 2006 • State-by-state report on authentication of online legal resources March 2007 • 256 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

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

6. Survey Key Findings ctd. • States have not been sufficiently deliberate in their policies and practices • No state’s online primary legal resources are authenticated or afford ready authentication by standard methods • 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

7. 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 279-282 • The Snowball of Disaster

8. 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

9. 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 • www.google.com/publicsector partnerships

10. 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

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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

19. UK Statute Law Database • SLD finally released for public use December 2006, begun in early 1990s • Free on the Internet at www.statutelaw.gov.uk • ‘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

22. 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

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

24. Thank you ! jules.winterton@sas.ac.uk