Recordkeeping, Ethics and Law

Distributed networks such as the Internet have altered the fundamental way a record is created, captured, accessed and managed over time. Law and ethics provide the major sources of regulatory controls over participants in such networks. This book analyses the interrelationship of recordkeeping, ethics and law in terms of existing regulatory models and their application to the Internet environment. It proposes an Internet model based on the notion of a legal and social relationship as a means of identifying the legal and ethical rights and obligations of recordkeeping participants in networked transactions. Medical, business and governmental relationships within communities of common interest based on trust illustrate the practical application of the model. As legal relationships have their basis in the law of obligations found in common and civil law systems, as well as archival science, the model has a broad-based application. The relationship model also provides a unique ethical and legal approach to property, access, privacy and evidence. Most importantly, the book provides an interdisciplinary approach to Internet regulation, which contributes to closer ties between those who research, teach and work in fields of ethics, law and archival science.