On Jun 15, 2007, at 1:29 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Court documents are in the public domain in many jurisdiction, this would include pleadings of all sorts as well as decisions of judges. Realistically, only the decisions tend to be regularly reported. Court decisions are themselves a part of the law in that they provide a body of precedents to be used in future decisions. They provide the reasoning that is essential to the law. They are a significant factor in attaining an accountable judicial system in a free and open society.
I understand what caselaw is, Ray. My question was related to the lack of exclusionary criteria in Wikisource. But I think that there is nothing we can do in that regard, as Wikisource collects free texts, and court orders and decisions are indeed in the public domain in many jurisdictions.
As you said, we could address any specific cases on the linking from WP, not giving a special treatment to Wikisource vs the text of the same court order in caselaw.com, for example. The fact that it is in Wikisource does not mean that we *have* to link to it, if deemed inappropriate for a BLP.
-- Jossi