Inaug.-diss.--Marburg. / Curriculum vitae. Includes bibliographical references.

A trustworthy record is one that is both an accurate statement of facts and a genuine manifestation of those facts. Record trustworthiness thus has two qualitative dimensions: reliability and authenticity. Reliability means that the record is capable of standing for the facts to which it attests, while authenticity means that the record is what it claims to be. The trustworthiness of records as evidence is of particular interest to legal and historical practitioners who need to ensure that records are trustworthy so that justice may be realized or the past understood. Traditionally, the disciplines of law and history have relied on the guarantee of trustworthiness inherent in the circumstances surrounding the creation and maintenance of records. For records created by bureaucracies, that trustworthiness has been ensured and protected through the mechanisms of authority and delegation, and through procedural controls exercised over record-writers and record-keepers. As bureaucracies rely increasingly on new information and communication technologies to create and maintain their records, the question that presents itself is whether these traditional mechanisms and controls are adequate to the task of verifying the degree of reliability and authenticity of electronic records, whose most salient feature is the ease with which they can be invisibly altered and manipulated. This study explores the evolution of means of assessing the trustworthiness of records as evidence from antiquity to the digital age, and from the perspectives of law and history; and examines recent efforts undertaken by researchers in the field of archival science to develop methods for ensuring the trustworthiness of electronic records specifically, based on a contemporary adaptation of diplomatics. Diplomatics emerged in the seventeenth century as a body of concepts and principles for determining the authenticity of medieval documents. The exploration reveals the extent to which legal, historical, and diplomatic methods operate within a framework of inferences, generalizations and probabilities; the degree to which those methods are rooted in observational principles; and the continuing validity of a best evidence principle for assessing record trustworthiness. The study concludes that, while the technological means of assessing and ensuring record trustworthiness have changed fundamentally over time, the underlying principles have remained remarkably consistent.

Thesis (LL. M.)--Judge Advocate General's School, United States Army, 1987. / "April 1987." Typescript. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued in microfiche.

A trustworthy record is one that is both an accurate statement of facts and a genuine manifestation of those facts. Record trustworthiness thus has two qualitative dimensions: reliability and authenticity. Reliability means that the record is capable of standing for the facts to which it attests, while authenticity means that the record is what it claims to be. The trustworthiness of records as evidence is of particular interest to legal and historical practitioners who need to ensure that records are trustworthy so that justice may be realized or the past understood. Traditionally, the disciplines of law and history have relied on the guarantee of trustworthiness inherent in the circumstances surrounding the creation and maintenance of records. For records created by bureaucracies, that trustworthiness has been ensured and protected through the mechanisms of authority and delegation, and through procedural controls exercised over record-writers and record-keepers. As bureaucracies rely increasingly on new information and communication technologies to create and maintain their records, the question that presents itself is whether these traditional mechanisms and controls are adequate to the task of verifying the degree of reliability and authenticity of electronic records, whose most salient feature is the ease with which they can be invisibly altered and manipulated. This study explores the evolution of means of assessing the trustworthiness of records as evidence from antiquity to the digital age, and from the perspectives of law and history; and examines recent efforts undertaken by researchers in the field of archival science to develop methods for ensuring the trustworthiness of electronic records specifically, based on a contemporary adaptation of diplomatics. Diplomatics emerged in the seventeenth century as a body of concepts and principles for determining the authenticity of medieval documents. The exploration reveals the extent to which legal, historical, and diplomatic methods operate within a framework of inferences, generalizations and probabilities; the degree to which those methods are rooted in observational principles; and the continuing validity of a best evidence principle for assessing record trustworthiness. The study concludes that, while the technological means of assessing and ensuring record trustworthiness have changed fundamentally over time, the underlying principles have remained remarkably consistent. / Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies / Graduate

Die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël word in die algemeen beskou as een van die mees problematiese areas van die Suid-Afrikaanse bewysreg. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Regskommissie het dan ook redelik onlangs ondersoek ingestel na die wenslikheid van die behoud of afskaffing van die reël. Ondersoek word ingestel na die ware aard van die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël en of die reël op ’n korrekte wyse in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg ingevoer is. ’n Deeglike kritiese ontleding word verder gedoen van die twee komponente waaruit die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël bestaan, naamlik die integrasiereël en die interpretasiereël, met behoorlike verwysing na relevante regspraak en die standpunte van akademiese skrywers op hierdie gebied. Kritiese ondersoek word verder ingestel na die verslag en aanbevelings van die Suid-Afrikaanse Regskommissie ten aansien van die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël. Die impak van die 1996 Grondwet, asook die moderne ontwikkeling van die rekenaar en elektroniese dokumente op die ekstrinsiekegetuienis-reël word ook kortliks ondersoek. Daar word verder grondig ondersoek ingestel na die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël in ’n regsvergelykende perspektief met spesifieke verwysing na die Engelse, Amerikaanse, Kanadese, Nederlandse, Duitse, Franse en Switserse reg, asook die moontlike waarde wat sodanige benaderings kan toevoeg tot die reël in ’n Suid-afrikaanse konteks. Die gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom word in hierdie proefskrif is dat die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël aansienlik gemodifiseer moet word in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg deur middel van die promulgering van spesifieke wetgewing op hierdie gebied. Die essensie van hierdie wetgewing moet daaruit bestaan dat alle relevante ekstrinsieke getuienis toegelaat behoort te word ten einde die ware bedoeling van die kontrakspartye vas te stel, behalwe waar dit blyk dat hulle ooreengekom het om hulle algehele ooreenkoms in die skriftelike kontrak te integreer. Daar behoort egter terselftertyd ’n aansienlike bewyswaarde aan die skriftelike dokument, asook die terme daarin vervat, geheg te word ten einde die onskendbaarheid van die skriftelike dokument te preserveer. / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.D.

Die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël word in die algemeen beskou as een van die mees problematiese areas van die Suid-Afrikaanse bewysreg. Die Suid-Afrikaanse Regskommissie het dan ook redelik onlangs ondersoek ingestel na die wenslikheid van die behoud of afskaffing van die reël. Ondersoek word ingestel na die ware aard van die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël en of die reël op ’n korrekte wyse in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg ingevoer is. ’n Deeglike kritiese ontleding word verder gedoen van die twee komponente waaruit die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël bestaan, naamlik die integrasiereël en die interpretasiereël, met behoorlike verwysing na relevante regspraak en die standpunte van akademiese skrywers op hierdie gebied. Kritiese ondersoek word verder ingestel na die verslag en aanbevelings van die Suid-Afrikaanse Regskommissie ten aansien van die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël. Die impak van die 1996 Grondwet, asook die moderne ontwikkeling van die rekenaar en elektroniese dokumente op die ekstrinsiekegetuienis-reël word ook kortliks ondersoek. Daar word verder grondig ondersoek ingestel na die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël in ’n regsvergelykende perspektief met spesifieke verwysing na die Engelse, Amerikaanse, Kanadese, Nederlandse, Duitse, Franse en Switserse reg, asook die moontlike waarde wat sodanige benaderings kan toevoeg tot die reël in ’n Suid-afrikaanse konteks. Die gevolgtrekking waartoe gekom word in hierdie proefskrif is dat die ekstrinsieke getuienis-reël aansienlik gemodifiseer moet word in die Suid-Afrikaanse reg deur middel van die promulgering van spesifieke wetgewing op hierdie gebied. Die essensie van hierdie wetgewing moet daaruit bestaan dat alle relevante ekstrinsieke getuienis toegelaat behoort te word ten einde die ware bedoeling van die kontrakspartye vas te stel, behalwe waar dit blyk dat hulle ooreengekom het om hulle algehele ooreenkoms in die skriftelike kontrak te integreer. Daar behoort egter terselftertyd ’n aansienlike bewyswaarde aan die skriftelike dokument, asook die terme daarin vervat, geheg te word ten einde die onskendbaarheid van die skriftelike dokument te preserveer. / Criminal and Procedural Law / LL.D.