Archive law

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The legal issues associated with archiving are referred to as archive law .

Unlike library law , archive law is still a very young specialty that few experts are concerned with.

On legal matter

One focus of archive law is questions of data protection , i.e. the use of personal modern archive material. In addition, there has recently been a concern with the freedom of information laws .

Further topics are (according to the bibliography by Rainer Polley):

National

European law

The EURBICA planning a database called Euro nomos for Community Archives Law.

Germany

The archive laws of the Federation and the countries regulate the archiving of documents from the offices of the Federation and the countries and the organization of the respective archive .

The prerequisite for the inclusion of documents (files, documents, maps, plans and carriers of data, images, film, sound and other recordings) in an archive is that the documents are of lasting value, i.e. h that them lasting value for research or understanding of German history, safeguarding legitimate interests of citizens or the provision of information. legislative , administrative or law , which puts a revelation not violate the privacy of postal or telecommunications secrecy would be contrary . Only the responsible archives can decide on this so-called “archival value”. In principle, no public authority or body is authorized to delete or destroy their documents without authorization; rather, there is an obligation to provide the relevant archive.

Laws in Germany

Criticism in Germany

As early as 2003, the Working Group of Information Commissioners in Germany (AGID) called for the rights of inspection to be adapted to the freedom of information legislation , since the files that are freely accessible under the freedom of information laws are currently no longer accessible for a period of several decades after they have been submitted to an archive.

For the Federal Archives Act, the corresponding amendment to Section 5 (4) BArchG was made by Section 13 (2) of the Federal Freedom of Information Act of September 5, 2005, which came into force on January 1, 2006 .

Many archive laws in the federal states, for example in Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Bremen, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Thuringia, have been fundamentally reformed since 2009. Above all, the laws were adapted to general digitization, for example by including electronic files and plans as "documents". Another point of reform was the adaptation of the archive laws to the respective freedom of information law. The federal government has proposed a reform of the Federal Archives Act since September 2016, which also adapts federal archives law to electronic communication.

Austria

The Austrian archive law is declared at the federal level and, for the state archives, at the state level.

The Federal Archives Act (§ 4) obliges the Austrian State Archives to keep an archive register accessible via the Internet . It provides an overview of the Austrian archives (federal, state, municipal and private archives), as well as the respective holdings and conditions of use.

State archive laws:

  • Carinthia: Law of 30 January 1997, with which the Carinthian Provincial Archives is established as an institution (Kärntner Landesarchivgesetz - K-LAG) LGBl No. 40/1997 - the first Provincial Archives Act in Austria
  • Lower Austria: Lower Austria Archives Act (Lower Austria AG)
  • Upper Austria: Provincial law on the safeguarding, storage and use of public archives and the activities of the archives entrusted with them (Upper Austrian Archives Act)
  • Salzburg: Law of April 23, 2008 on the safeguarding and use of public archives and the activities of the archives entrusted with them (Salzburg Archives Law)
  • Styria: Law of April 16, 2013 on the safeguarding, safekeeping and use of archival material (Styrian Archives Act - StAG)
  • Vorarlberg: Archive Act
  • Vienna: Law on the safeguarding, safekeeping and use of archival material owned or custody of the City of Vienna (Vienna Archives Act - Wr.ArchG)

Switzerland

Archive law (Switzerland)

literature

General
  • Hermann Bannasch: Contemporary history in the barriers of archive law. Contributions to a symposium in honor of Professor Dr. Gregor Richter on January 29th and 30th, 1992 in Stuttgart. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-17-013659-3 , ( workbooks of the State Archives Administration Baden-Württemberg Series A, 4).
  • Bartholomäus Manegold: archive law. The archiving obligation of public agencies and the archival access right of the historical researcher in the light of the guarantee of freedom of research of Art. 5 Abs. 3 GG . Duncker and Humblot, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-428-10322-X , ( Publications on Public Law 874), (Simultaneously: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 1999).
  • Harald Müller : Legal problems with estates in libraries and archives . Working group for legal library and documentation, Augsburg et al. 1983, ISBN 3-9800240-6-7 , ( workbooks of the working group for legal library and documentation 8).
Germany
  • Hannes Berger: Public Archives and State Knowledge. The modernization of German archive law , Tectum, Baden-Baden 2019, ISBN 978-3-8288-4373-8 .
  • Hannes Berger: The changing German archive law . In: Journal for State Constitutional Law and State Administrative Law (ZLVR), Issue 1/2016, pp. 12–22.
  • Dieter Strauch: The archival property. Investigations into public and private property law in German archives . Rheinland-Verlag et al., Cologne et al. 1998, ISBN 3-7927-1703-4 , ( Landschaftsverband Rheinland, Rhineland Archive Advice Center , Archive Issues 31).
Austria
  • Elisabeth Schöggl-Ernst: Archives and Law: Austrian Archival Legislation and Access to Archives , pdf , accessed on July 27, 2011.
  • Petra Doupona: The Development of the Federal Archives Act. Graz 2002, (Graz, Univ., Dipl.-Arb., 2002).
  • Peter Wiesflecker: The draft for a Styrian State Archives Act , accessed on January 10, 2017.
Switzerland
  • Hans R. Künzle: Swiss library and documentation law: the law of libraries, archives, museums and documentation centers in Switzerland with comparative references to German, French, English and American law . Schulthess, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-7255-3041-6 .

Web links

Wikisource: Archive law  - sources and full texts
Europe
Germany

Individual evidence

  1. www.eurbica.org
  2. euronomos ( Memento of the original from March 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / euronomos.euronomos.org
  3. ^ Hannes Berger: The German archive law in the course of change. Journal of State Constitutional Law and State Administrative Law , November 23, 2016, accessed on November 23, 2016 .
  4. Legal basis for access to archive material (doc, univie.ac.at; 41 kB)
  5. Entire legal regulation for the Federal Archives Act as amended
  6. Archive register ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @ oesta.gv.at, accessed on July 23, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oesta.gv.at
  7. Law of January 30, 1997, with which the Carinthian Provincial Archive is established as an institution (Kärntner Landesarchivgesetz - K-LAG) StF: LGBl No. 40/1997
  8. ^ Lower Austrian Archives Act (Lower Austria AG) StF: LGBl. 5400-0.
  9. State law on the safeguarding, storage and use of public archival material and the activities of the archives entrusted with it (Upper Austrian Archive Law) StF: LGBl. 83/2003.
  10. Law of April 23, 2008 on the safeguarding and use of public archives and the activities of the archives entrusted with them (Salzburg Archives Act) StF: LGBl No. 53/2008.
  11. Law of April 16, 2013 on the safeguarding, safekeeping and use of archival material (Styrian Archives Act - StAG) StF: LGBl. No. 59/2013.
  12. Archives Act StF: LGBl. No. 1/2016.
  13. Law on the safeguarding, safekeeping and use of archival material owned or custody of the City of Vienna (Vienna Archives Act - Wr.ArchG) StF: LGBl. No. 59/2006.