Consider the type of document and the date of the document. If it is an old or obscure document, you may be wasting your time on the Internet. Consider the source of the document. Try to determine when the site was last updated or how often the site is updated. Always remember that the site and the document could be gone tomorrow.
Most web sites have no archival or retention policies.
Not everything on the web is free. For more information on how to evaluate a web site, see Update to Evaluating Foreign and International Legal Databases on the Internet . There are many other guides on how to evaluate information resources, especially those resources on the Internet, see Evaluation of Information Resources . The amount of sources available on the Internet in the areas of international and foreign law is growing at a furious pace. As with researching any unfamiliar topic, beginning with a research guide or something similar is always a good starting point.