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Article
Content and Quality of Legal Information and Data on the Internet with a Special Focus on the United States
UF Law Faculty Publications
  • Claire M. Germain, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-1999
Abstract

In the United States today, digital versions of current decisions, bills, statutes, and regulations issued by federal and state governments are widely available on publicly accessible Web sites. Worldwide, official (defined as "authoritative," or "the official" word of the law) legal information issued by international organizations and foreign governments is also becoming available on the Web. However, there are currently no standards for the production and authentication of digital documents. Moreover, the information is sometimes available only for a short time and then disappears from the site. No guidelines exist either to promote a uniform way to cite to digital legal materials. This article examines the contents of legal data and information on the Internet, with a special focus on the United States. It then evaluates the quality of the data, its impact on legal research and access to legal information, and addresses some issues raised by the digital medium, such as its reliability and permanent access concerns.

Citation Information
Claire M. Germain, Content and Quality of Legal Information and Data on the Internet with a Special Focus on the United States, 27 Int'l J. Legal Info. 289 (1999), available at http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/159