NCCUSL Accepts Draft Uniform Statute on Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials

The latest draft of The Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials Act, and its accompanying report, were accepted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) on 15 July 2010, according to a report by Professor Barbara Bintliff of the University of Colorado School of Law, the reporter to the NCCUSL Drafting Committee on Authentication and Preservation of State Electronic Legal Materials, which is drafting the statute.

According to Professor Bintliff’s report, the NCCUSL Committee of the Whole’s principal comments on the draft were as follows:

a request for clarification of the relationship between the state’s official publishers and commercial publishers; a desire by Commissioners to include “free access” to preserved, historical materials as an option; and a need to explain better the Drafting Committee’s intentions regarding the effective date of the act.

According to Professor Bintliff’s report, the drafting committee will meet again on 19-21 November 2010 in Washington, DC, USA, to address those comments and to consider further revisions to the draft statute. Professor Bintliff’s report states that a second reading of the draft statute by NCCUSL is expected in summer 2011.

Most of the previous drafts and other documents produced by the drafting committee are available at the drafting committee’s documents Website.