Visiting researcher lecture on AI legislation and smart governance at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa University. 12 March 2023

1. AI LEGISLATION AND SMART GOVERNANCE
Dr. Fotis Fitsilis, Scientific Service, Hellenic Parliament
12 March 2023
Visiting research scholar, Department of Middle Eastern Studies
College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hamad Bin Khalifa
University
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2. ABSTRACT
The production of regulations lies at the heart of every government system. The law-making
process itself is usually governed by decade-old traditions & follows strict legal & procedural
rules. And yet, it is possible to substantially advance the making of laws by using a balanced
mixture of modern technologies with the goal to automate, standardize & accelerate the
underlying processes, while decreasing the related administrative & regulatory costs. This lecture
will initiate students & practitioners into the world of legal informatics. First, its theory and basic
concepts will be presented followed by examples of machine-readable provisions. Second,
existing systems incorporating legal informatics principles will be discussed with potential
relevance for application in the National context. Third, the challenges of integrating artificial
intelligence-based solutions in legislation will be outlined. All three parts will be backed by
practical examples. A final thought-provoking step will invite the participants to apply the
knowledge learned for the making of national regulations.
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3. STRUCTURE
 Approach
 Methods & tools
 Advanced law-making
o Basic legal informatics concepts
o Existing systems
o AI-related challenges
 Defining an interoperability lab
 Conclusions
 Bibliography
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4. APPROACH
 Use of (linked) open data formats
 Attempt the leap towards the web 3.0 & the semantic web
 Manage the balance between domestic & international expertise
 Prepare for data first, platform agnostic & machine consumable
formats
 Mobile integration
 ICT transformation goes hand-in-hand with
adjustments in internal processes
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A
B
C
…
N

5. OPEN DATA
 Data availability does not imply data openness
 There are layers of “openness”
 It is a strategic goal to reach a specific one
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Open data classification afterTimBL

6. ADVANCED LAW-MAKING
BASIC LEGAL INFORMATICS CONCEPTS
 ….
 …..
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• Analogy between the parliamentary
& the original Gartner cycle
• Particularly interesting technologies
for further study, e.g.:
o linked open data
o virtual parliament [Shura Council]
o Interoperability solutions
o rapid digital transformation Adaptation of Gartner‘s cycle
[ Koryzis et al., 2021]
E-legislation

7. E-LEGISLATION: WHERETO START
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• Define digital strategy for a smooth ICT system development process
• Produce an E-legislation roadmap to include, governmental & judicial
business procedures
 “national ecosystems of legal documents”
• Identify, prioritize and plan specific digitalization actions
• Upgrade existing & develop new GovTech systems
• Special attention to be placed on legacy systems
• Strive an equilibrium between classic bureaucracy & electronic/automated
legislative processes

8. BASIC DATA FORMATS
 ….
 …..
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<preface>
<subdivision>
<docProponent> State of Qatar</docProponent>
<docProponent>Ministry of ….</docProponent>
<docType>Decision</docType>
<docNumber>No. 12</docNumber>
<docDate date="2023-03-12">(of 12 March 2023)</docDate>
<docTitle>Subject of the Decision</docTitle>
</subdivision>
</preface>
• Use of the Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• XML: text-based format for representing structured information

9. ONTOLOGIES
 ….
Ontology example
[Dandibhotla et al. 2016]
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Definition: “a set of concepts and categories
in a subject area or domain that shows their
properties and the relations between them”
[Oxford English Dictionary]

10. UNIQUE IDENTIFIERS
EUROPEAN LEGISLATION IDENTIFIER (ELI)
Full  http://data.europa.eu/eli/{typedoc}/{year}/{naturalnumber}{/subdivision*}/oj
Partial  http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013
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Label URI Example
Type {typedoc} reg
Year {year} 2013
Number {naturalnumber} 216
Publisher oj oj
Identifier URI https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/
216/oj

11. ADVANCED LAW-MAKING
EXISTING SYSTEMS ANDTOOLS
 Dynamic world wide development
 Production level: UN, EU, UK & USA
 Assessment/demo: multiple other countries [AZ, CA,TR]
 E-legislation tools
o LEOS: Legislation Editing Open Software)
o ManyLaws: Big Open Legal Data
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12. ACTIVITIESWITHIN THE EU
 AT4AM (AuthoringTool forAmendments):
o Web-based authoring tool
o Drafting and amending legal amendments to EU legislation
 Development of LEOS:
o Web-based authoring tool
o Development led & managed by DG DIGIT
o Natively uses the Akoma Ntoso (AKN) standard
 AKN evolution  AKN4EU for EU law
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13. LEGISLATION EDITING OPEN SOFTWARE (LEOS)
 State-of-the-art, web-based app
 Modern and open technologies
 Modular, multi-lingual design
 Legal document templates
 Graphical User Interface (GUI)
 WYSIWYG
 Output in HTML & PDF
 Addition of metadata
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14. MANYLAWS
 ManyLaws, is a digital platform to search & compare among
European (EU), Austrian (AT) & Hellenic (GR) legal texts
 Website: www.manylaws.eu
 Registration is required for the use of advanced features &
functionality
 Main technologies used: automatic translation, data mining &
semantic anayisis
 The ManyLaws data scheme is based on DCAT-AP, ELI &AKN
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15. ADVANCED LAW-MAKING
AI-RELATED CHALLENGES
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•AI: Buzz word or reality?
• Broad applications in society & economy
• Rapidly evolving technology (see, e.g., the ChatGPT case)
• Opportunities and challenges
• Paradigm shift in public organizations
• Staring points (indicative):
o Training  bringing everybody on the same page
o Screening the institutional workspace forAI-based
solutions

16. USE CASE
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Prepared and implemented by:
&
Open Government Institute + Hellenic OCRTeam

17. METHODOLOGY
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 Two-step approach:
o Brainstorming method (small team of experts)
o Parliamentary workshop (MPs & practitioners)
 Tool: Xleap, https://www.xleap.net
o Cloud-based online variant for brainstorming
 Parameters:
o Relevance values: from 0 (irrelevant) to 10 (must-have)
o Priority values: from 0 (2021) to 10 (2030)

18.  ….
RESULTS FORTHE HELLENIC PARLIAMENT
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• AI-enhanced law-making: 36 solutions
• Top-3 [Fitsilis et al., 2022]
oIntelligent examination of legislative
proposals for possible impacts with other
regulations (Relevance: 8.57; SD: 0.12; Date:
02.07.2023, SD: 0.19)
oTransformation of legislation (code) into
machine understandable e-code (Relevance:
8.57; SD: 0.20; Date: 16.10.2023; SD: 0.24)
oSmart Law – Collection of all coded laws
with the possibility for AI interpretation of
the legislation (Relevance: 8.50; SD: 0.13;
Date: 31.12.2023; SD: 0.25)

19. INTEROPERABILITY LAB
Description and evaluation
[Fitsilis & Papastylianou, 2022]
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 Special course in the Greek School of Governance
(EKDDA)
 Participation: 70% without ICT BG (law, finance etc.)
 Online training
LEOS system Trainer Students

20. METHOD ANDTOOLS
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USE CASE
Teaching
 Structure: 3 x 4h modules; theory and practice
 Setup: demo (large groups); cloud app (small team)
 Laws are usually lengthy & not suitable to exemplify the system
 Decisions
Software
 LEOS (R3.0.0)
 Protégé for ontology development (R4.3)
 Notepad++ with XML add-on

21. CONCLUSIONS
 Use of legal informatics patterns & principles
 Development of ontological models
 Definition of legal document templates & data schemes
 Use of standards: XML, RDF, OWL+ & Akoma Ntoso (AKN)*
 Establishment of workflow management systems
 Application of web-based, collaborative & secure authoring tools
 Investigation & utilization of AI-enhanced tools & services
*
+
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22. BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Fitsilis, F. (2019). Imposing regulation on advanced algorithms. Cham: Springer.
 Fitsilis, F., & Mikros, G. (2022). Smart Parliaments: Data-Driven Democracy.
Brussels: European Liberal Forum.
 Fitsilis, F., & Makropoulou,G. (2023). Nomoparaskevastikí diadikasía kai nomikí
pliroforikí [Law-making process and legal informatics]. Athens: Nomiki Bibliothiki.
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23. Thank you!
fitsilisf@parliament.gr
https://fitsilis.gr
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The information and views set out in this presentation are only
those of the author and do not reflect the official opinion of
the Hellenic Parliament