2022 Colorado Code
Title 24 - Government - State
Article 71.5 - Uniform Electronic Legal Material Act
§ 24-71.5-105. Authentication of Official Electronic Record

An official publisher of legal material in an electronic record that is designated as official under section 24-71.5-104 shall authenticate the record. To authenticate an electronic record, the publisher shall provide a method for a user to determine that the record received by the user from the publisher is unaltered from the official record published by the publisher.

Source: L. 2012: Entire article added, (HB 12-1209), ch. 138, p. 502, § 1, effective August 8.

As matters of public policy, a state should make its official legal material available in a trustworthy form and citizens should be able to ascertain the trustworthiness of electronic official legal material. Reliable and accurate government legal material is necessary to allow those who use the information to make informed decisions based on it. The UELMAsupports governments in fulfilling their obligations to provide trustworthy legal information so that citizens may participate knowledgeably in their own governance. The act also provides assurances to the legal community that the legal material it needs are accurate and reliable.

This act guides a state in implementing both policies. The intent of this act is to be technology-neutral, leaving it to the enacting state to choose its preferred technology for authentication of legal material in an electronic record from among the options available. The technology-neutral approach also allows the state to change technologies when necessary or desirable.

Authentication of electronic legal documents is an issue of both national and worldwide concern. Numerous governments and organizations are beginning to authenticate legal material and develop best practices. As of March, 2011, there are several U.S. jurisdictions in which legal material in an electronic record is being authenticated. Their practice offers guidance on specific technologies. For example, the United States Government Printing office provides official, authenticated Public Laws and other legal material using digital signatures ( see http://www.gpoaccess.gov/authentication/faq.html#1 ). Utah authenticates its administrative code using hash values ( see www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code.html ). Delaware provides an authenticated electronic version of administrative rules using a digital signature ( see http://regulations.delaware.gov/AdminCode/ ). Arkansas issues its opinions in an authenticated, electronic format, also using digital signatures ( see http://courts.arkansas.gov/court_opinions/sc/2009a/20090528/published/09-540.pdf) .

France's electronic Journal Officiel, the official record of its legislation and regulations, is authenticated ( see http://journal-officiel.gouv.fr/ ). South Korea has announced, as part of its transition to a more electronic environment, that it will improve its practices so that "digital documents are considered as valid as their printed versions". ( http://www.koreaherald.com/business/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101205000243 ).

The Hague Conference on Private International Law, a 72-member inter-governmental organization that develops multilateral legal instruments, has developed a best practices document requiring authentication of its official electronic legal materials. The "Guiding Principles to be Considered in Developing a Future Instrument," begun in 2008, includes principles for Integrity and Authoritativeness that state, in part:

4. State Parties are encouraged to make available authoritative versions of their legal materials provided in electronic form.

5. State Parties are encouraged to take all reasonable measures available to them to ensure that authoritative legal materials can be reproduced or re-used by other bodies with clear indications of their origins and integrity (authoritativeness).

These Principles, when completed and adopted, will apply to the development of all instruments coming from the Hague Conference, and the principles will become standards for organizations and jurisdictions worldwide. This act adds to these emerging standards by approaching the issue from an outcomes-based perspective.

As shown in the examples above, products that are cost-effective, convenient, and immediate in outcome are already available for electronic authentication of legal material. As authentication of electronic information becomes standard, more products for and methods of authentication will be developed. This Section describes a technological outcome only authentication of an electronic record. In order to allow states maximum flexibility, neither this section nor any other section of the act specifies any particular technologies or methods of authentication.

Regardless of the method of authentication, it is important that official publishers designate a "baseline" copy of all published legal material that constitutes the definitive document against which all others are compared for the purpose of authenticating the legal material. The format of the baseline copy may vary, depending on the practices of the official publisher and the type of legal material. The baseline copy will ensure that the legal material required to be preserved under Section 7, and to which public access is made available in Section 8, is accurate and trustworthy.