Workshop “Digitalization aspects in law-drafting”

On April 5, 2023, USAID RADA: Next Generation Program facilitated the online workshop on aspects of digitalization of the law-drafting process, in which more than 220 people participated. The invited expert on the development of parliamentarism and digital governance, Dr. Fotios Fitsilis, explained how modern technologies allow automating, standardizing and speeding up the basic processes of law-drafting improving law-making and reducing relevant administrative costs.

In particular, the expert together with the participants discussed:

• what capabilities does artificial intelligence have in standard law-drafting;
• what software is available for editing legislation;
• what tools are used in the EU to develop and amend draft laws;
• which are digital platforms for comparing legal texts.

Among the participants were people's deputies of Ukraine, their assistants, employees of the Apparatus of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU), the Cabinet of Ministers and ministries, judges, experts, students and representatives of various organizations.

As the deputy head of the VRU Secreteriat, Mykhailo Tepliuk, noted: "The process of digitalization covers and changes all spheres of social life, therefore it is fundamentally important to know the possibilities and limits of the application of new technologies. This issue is of extremely great interest, and it is useful to learn how digitalization can be used in normative design, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this process."

At the same time, the representative of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ilona Gavronska, noted that such workshops are especially relevant in the context of the Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine, "when Ukraine has to prepare and approve a large number of acts, and there is an increasing need for the most effective and rapid cooperation."

You can watch the video recording of the online workshop at this link.

Also, for those who are deeply interested in the topic, here is a list of literature recommended by Dr. Fitsilis:

1. Fitsilis, F., Koryzis, D., Svolopoulos, V., & Spiliotopoulos, D. (2017). Implementing digital parliament innovative concepts for citizens and policy makers. In HCI in Business, Government and Organizations. Interacting with Information Systems: 4th International Conference, HCIBGO 2017, Held as Part of HCI International 2017, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 9-14, 2017, Proceedings, Part I 4 (pp. 154-170). Springer International Publishing.
2. Leventis, S., Fitsilis, F., & Anastasiou, V. (2021). Diversification of Legislation Editing Open Software (LEOS) Using Software Agents-Transforming Parliamentary Control of the Hellenic Parliament into Big Open Legal Data. Big Data and Cognitive Computing, 5(3), 45.
3. von Lucke, J., Fitsilis, F., & Etscheid, J. (2022). Using Artificial Intelligence for Legislation-Thinking About and Selecting Realistic Topics. EGOV-CeDEM-ePart 2022, 32.
4. Fitsilis, F., & von Lucke, J. (2023). Beyond contemporary parliamentary practice: Unfolding the institutional potential of Artificial Intelligence. The PArliamentarian, 104(1), 58.