We've all experienced link rot, even if we don't know it by that name. Link rot is the phenomenon by which URLs deteriorate and lead to 404 error messages instead of the desired content, and it is plaguing legal citations.
For example, nearly 75 percent of links in the Harvard Law Review and over 50 percent of links in U.S. Supreme Court decisions are rotten. The materials relied on by authors and justices in making their legal arguments are vanishing. Perma.cc can help us fix this.
Perma.cc is a web-based tool that is designed to prevent link rot in legal citations by capturing images of websites and storing them securely online forever. This captured information can be accessed via "Perma Links." Members of law journals will create Perma Links using Perma.cc during the process of cite-checking. This will ensure that all URLs found in the Chapman Law Review and the Diversity and Social Justice Forum stay fresh.
To learn more about the problem of link rot and the solution provided by Perma, check out the following:
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