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Article

Why Authentication Procedures Matter for US and UK Public Legal Resources on the Web

Abstract

Online legal resources are increasingly the sole official source. Authentication – the means to demonstrate that materials are what they purport to be – is inseparably interrelated with the official status of sources on the web. This article by Richard J. Matthews examines key features of the UK Statute Law Database, the US Government Printing Office future digital system (FDsys), and the Ohio Supreme Court database of judicial decisions that are relevant to assessing appropriate authentication procedures for those resources. Archival and computational authentication methods are reviewed. Overall findings of AALL's State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources and its recent national summit on authentic legal information on the web are analysed.

Copyright
COPYRIGHT: © The British and Irish Association of Law Librarians 2008
References
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AALL, Access to Electronic Legal Information Committee and Washington Affairs Office. (2007a) State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources. Chicago, American Association of Law Libraries (as amended June 4, 2007). Available at http://www.aallnet.org/aallwash/authenreport.html.
AALL. (2007b) Authentic Legal Information in the Digital Age: AALL National Summit [webpage at http://www.aallnet.org/summit/default.asp]. Chicago, American Association of Law Libraries.
AALL, Government Relations Committee and Washington Affairs Office. (2003) State-by-State Report on Permanent Public Access to Electronic Government Information. Chicago, American Association of Law Libraries. Available at http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/State_PPAreport.htm.
Association of Reporters of Judicial Decisions. (2007) Statement of Principles: Official On-line Documents. Available at http://arjd.washlaw.edu/ARJD_E-Pub_Committee_Authentication_Pos_Paper_FINAL_2–12–07.pdf
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GPO, Office of the Chief Technical Officer. (2006) Requirements Document (RD V2.1) for the Future Digital System (FDsys). [Washington, DC], US Government Printing Office. Available at http://www.gpo.gov/projects/pdfs/FDsys_RD_v2.1.pdf.
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GPO. (2007d, as visited) GPO access, Authentication [webpage at www.gpoaccess.gov/authentication/]. [Washington, DC], US Government Printing Office.
Holborn, Guy. (2001) Butterworths Legal Research Guide. 2nd ed.London, Butterworths LexisNexis.
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Matthews, Richard J. (2006) The smart citizen's search for state law on the web: AALL authentication survey seeks to find out if there are official, authentic digital sources. AALL Spectrum 10(9), 20(5). Available at http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0607/pub_sp0607_Smart.pdf.
Matthews, Richard J. (2007) When is case law on the web the “official” published source? Criteria, quandaries, and implications for the US and the UK. Amicus Curiae: Journal of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. 69 (Spring), 19–25.
Ministry of Justice. (2007a, as visited) Update status of legislation [on UK statute law database website at http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Revised.aspx]. London, the Ministry.
Ministry of Justice. (2007b, as visited) Disclaimer [on UK statute law database website at http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/Disclaimer.aspx]. London, the Ministry.
Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services. (2007, as visited) InterPARES 2 Symposium. Victoria, BC, Government of British Columbia, the agency.
NARA, Federal Public Key Infrastructure Steering Committee Legal/Policy Working Group. (2005) Records Management Guidance for PKI Digital Signature Authenticated and Secured Transaction Records. [Washington, DC, National Archives and Records Administration. Available at http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/pdf/pki.pdf.
Ohio Supreme Court. (2007, as visited) Ohio rules of court, Rules for reporting of opinions [as amended effective 1 May 2002]. Available at http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/Rules/reporting/.
US-InterPARES Project, Preservation Task Force. (2002) Preservation Task Force report. In Findings on the preservation of authentic electronic records: Final report to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (grants # 99–073 and # 2001–005). US-InterPARES Project. Available at http://www.interpares.org/book/interpares_book_f_ part3.pdf.
Wrosch, Tom. (2207) Authentic legal information in the digital age: A national summit, Resources, Technologies [handout on file with author]. Chicago, American Association of Law Libraries. Bibliography identifies examples and further information on the following technologies: public record certification (e.g., technologies used by Kansas and Arizona to ensure authenticity of state-issued certificates of corporate good standing); high assurance/extended validation SSL certificates (e.g., Geotrust, Thawte, and Verisign); hashing and time-stamping (e.g., U.S. Postal Service Electronic Post Mark), PKI solutions (e.g., Adobe Acrobat).
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Legal Information Management
  • ISSN: 1472-6696
  • EISSN: 1741-2021
  • URL: /core/journals/legal-information-management
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