Victoria: The Keep-It-All State? The Impact on Archives of the Crimes (Document Destruction) Act 2006 and the Evidence (Document Unavailability) Act 2006
Résumé
In 2006, Victoria became the first state in Australia to enact laws specifically criminalizing document destruction in situations where no legal proceedings had yet commenced. Included in the Crimes (Document Destruction) Act and its supporting adjunct, the Evidence (Document Unavailability) Act, are offences and penalties for those who destroy evidence. The new legislation sent an immediate and profound wave of unease throughout Victoria’s public and private sectors: Did these laws mean that organizations could no longer destroy any record because it may one day be needed in discovery for a case not yet launched or even contemplated? Agencies turned to the Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), the state archival authority, for advice and clarification on what the Acts meant for recordkeeping and archives. This article reviews the issues that PROV considered in developing a response to the two Acts, and more broadly, how open-ended directions to “keep in case” can pose both intellectual and practical challenges for records managers and archivists alike.
RÉSUMÉ
En 2006, Victoria est devenu le premier État australien à promulguer des lois qui criminalisent spécifiquement la destruction de documents dans des situations où aucun procès n’a encore commencé. Le Crimes (Document Destruction) Act et la législation complémentaire, l’Evidence (Document Unavailability) Act, incluent des infractions et des peines pour celles et ceux qui détruisent des preuves. La nouvelle législation a immédiatement provoqué un malaise profond dans les secteurs publics et privés de Victoria : est-ce que ces lois voulaient dire qu’une organisation ne pouvait plus détruire aucun document car on pourrait un jour en avoir besoin dans des procès n’ayant pas encore été présentés en cour ou n’ayant même pas encore été envisagés? Les agences se sont tournées vers le Public Record Office Victoria (PROV), l’autorité en matière des archives de l’État, pour obtenir des conseils et des éclaircissements sur les répercussions possibles de ces lois sur la gestion des documents et l’archivistique. Cet article examine les questions que le PROV a dû considérer pour développer sa réponse aux deux lois et, de façon plus large, il explore comment la tendance de « garder au cas où » peut créer des défis d’ordre intellectuel et pratique, tant pour les gestionnaires de documents que pour les archivistes.
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