The archival notion of document trustworthiness borrows from a number of traditions, the most influential of which are the rationalist tradition of legal evidence scholarship, specifically the rules governing the admissibility of documents, the modernist

The archival notion of document trustworthiness borrows from a number of traditions, the most influential of which are the rationalist tradition of legal evidence scholarship, specifically the rules governing the admissibility of documents, the modernist tradition of historical criticism, specifically the procedures governing the treatment of historical sources and the diplomatic tradition of documentary criticism. In all these traditions, the concepts of reliability and authenticity are posited on a direct connection between the word and the world and are rooted, both literally and metaphorically, in observational principles.