This will be an unusual post. First, it will be short. Second, it will praise the Supreme Court of Canada, for a change. Some years ago, I wrote here about the problem of “link rot” as it affects judicial decisions. Courts refer to online materials ― sometimes even blog posts, though I don’t think the Supreme Court of Canada has done that yet ― and provide references to these sources in their reasons. Unfortunately, the online addresses of these sources ― the URLs that enable the readers to find them ― can change. Indeed, the materials can simply be taken down. Finding the sources on which judges rely becomes difficult in the former case, and impossible in the latter. Unless, that is, the courts actually do something about it. And now the Supreme Court has.
Here is the Court’s announcement:
Recognizing that web pages or websites that the Court cites in its judgments may subsequently vary in content or be discontinued, the Office of the Registrar of the SCC has located and archived the content of most online sources that had been cited by the Court between 1998 and 2016. These sources were captured with a content as close as possible to the original content cited. Links to the archived content can be found here: Internet Sources Cited in SCC Judgments (1998 – 2016).
From 2017 onward, online internet sources cited in the “Authors Cited” section in SCC judgments will be captured and archived. When a judgment cites such a source, an “archived version” link will be provided to facilitate future research.
The Supreme Court of the United States has maintained an archive of “Internet sources cited in opinions“, albeit only going back to 2005, for some time now. Having taken a quick look at the websites of the UK and New Zealand Supreme Courts, I cannot find any equivalent archive, though perhaps I haven’t searched carefully enough.
It is great that the Supreme Court of Canada follows, and indeed improves on, the initiative of its American counterpart, and rescues its sources from oblivion. This is going to be very helpful to anyone ― a journalist, a researcher, or just a citizen ― who is interested in understanding what information the court relied on in making its decisions. As I wrote in my original post on this issue, the problem of “link rot” in the Supreme Court’s decisions was quite serious:
Of the links in the five oldest cases to cite any, not a single one still works, though one … leads to an automatic re-direct, and so is still useful. The rest lead either to error messages or even to an offer to buy the domain on which the page linked to had once been posted (a page belonging to the BC Human Rights Commission ― which has since been abolished).
The Court’s effort to remedy this problem is to be applauded.
Double Aspect 