EVOLVING STANDARDS FOR WWW LEGAL DOCUMENT PRESENTATION
This document sets forth the current standards being followed by the Legal Information Institute in preparation of primary law texts for WWW distribution. They are illustrated by the LII version of Articles 1 and 2 of the UCC.
Suggestions for additions or other improvements to these from users and other WWW authors/editors/publishers should be sent to: MARTIN@LAW.MAIL.CORNELL.EDU
I. Current Standards
Each coherent set of materials (a set of statutory provisions on a particular topic, say, or a particular treaty) should have:
A. An entry document which provides the top level table of contents.
The document should present the user with three hypertext links directly under the title. They are labeled: "Credits and Conditions," "Context," and "Structure" and lead to documents that:
1) "Credits and Conditions" - Explain who prepared the material, when, from what data source(s) and announce copyright claims and use conditions. E.g.
2) "Context" - Provide background for the Net navigator who may not be terribly knowledgeable about U.S. law as well as links to related documents (e.g., treaties that establish international law on the same subject as a U.S. statute). E.g.
3) "Structure" - Lay out the directory, file, and tagging information needed by someone wanting to create links to the full collection (UCC Articles 1 and 2) or a small piece of it (e.g., UCC 1-207). E.g.
B. A structure that allows navigation to and through a complex set of texts in many ways.
This is implemented by careful chunking and full implementation of all explicit cross references through hypertext links.
The structure should reflect these considerations:
- Each WWW file should be large enough to be a logical unit for a full-text search. With many statutes and regulations that points to each section being a file. Subunits within such files to which some author someday may wish to point should carry reference tags so that they can be reached with precision.
- Material of different weight or authority should be kept in separate, but linked, files. For example, the text of a particular statutory section and the drafters' comments or other annotation should be separated.
- WWW files should be no larger than required by the first principle so that access to the material of immediate interest is not slowed by file transfer (which for some, for some time will be at slip speeds). With huge sections made up of subsections dealing with reasonably discrete topics this principle may push toward subsection files.
- Having placed small chunks in separate files, it is critical to enable browsing a string of adjacent ones. This is accomplished with a table file (or files). Each file should be linked to its entry on that table file so that even if it (a statute section, say) is reached via an index search the other sections proximate to it (logically related according to the drafters) are easily accessed.
- File and internal tags should be derived from standard citation references so that someone other than the builder can create a link to any point in the collection, knowing simply the print reference and the chunking and naming scheme employed by the author/editor/publisher.
For example, knowing the WWW address of the UCC material and a particular section or subsection citation (e.g., UCC 2-403), another WWW author/editor/publisher can construct a link from a document discussing the situation of a good faith purchaser of goods to the text of that section:
"HREF=http://www.law.cornell.edu:80 /ucc/ucc2-403.text.html"
II. Examples and Experimental Documents
These standards have been worked through most thoroughly with statutory material. See Articles 1 and 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code.
For an experimental application to an appellate court decision see Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc., 120 L. Ed. 2d 615, 112 S. Ct. 2753 (1992).