Approved at the Business Meeting, July 2019
WHEREAS, the American Association of Law Libraries believes that equitable and permanent public access to official, authentic legal information is critical to the legal system of the United States; and
WHEREAS, the American Association of Law Libraries holds that information published on government websites must be trustworthy and reliable, preserved and permanently accessible, and offered to the public without charge whenever possible; and
WHEREAS, the American Association of Law Libraries found that most state governments have not yet met their responsibilities to provide trustworthy, reliable access to online legal information; and
WHEREAS, the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission provides a technology-neutral, outcomes-based approach to ensuring that online state legal material deemed official will be preserved and will be permanently available to the public in unaltered form; and
WHEREAS, the Act requires that if legal material is published only in electronic form, it must be designated official; and
WHEREAS, the Act requires that electronic legal material that has been designated official must be capable of being authenticated, preserved and permanently accessible to the public; and
WHEREAS, the Act promotes access to justice by ensuring access to trustworthy primary legal materials;
WHEREAS, members of the American Association of Law Libraries participated in the drafting of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act and have been instrumental in advocating for its adoption; and
WHEREAS, to date the Act has been adopted in 21 states and the District of Columbia; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the American Association of Law Libraries supports enactment of the Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act in the United States and its territories; and be it further
RESOLVED, that the American Association of Law Libraries encourages its chapters to adopt this resolution and to advocate for enactment of the Act in their states and regions.