British Parliamentary Commission issues call for evidence on “Making laws in a digital age”

In the British Parliament, the Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy has issued a call for evidence regarding “Making laws in a digital age”.

Here are excerpts of the announcement:

In March 2014 the Commission is collecting evidence for the first of its key themes: Making laws in a digital age.

Questions

Could technology improve the access to and usability of both legislation and the law-making process for the citizen, representatives and professionals (such as lawyers), and if so do you have any suggestions?

Should you need to be a lawyer to understand and use an Act?

Should technology be used to integrate citizens’ views better into the legislative process? At what stage of the legislative process would this work best? How could the Public Reading Stage be improved?

Are there any examples from other parliaments/democratic institutions in the UK or elsewhere of using technology to enhance legislation and the legislative process, which the Commission should consider?

[Please note: it’s not necessary to respond to all of the questions. Feel free to concentrate on the issues you think are most important, or which you have most to say on.]

How to submit evidence

Evidence by email from everyone and in any format is welcome: videos, blog posts as well as more formal notes.

Submit evidence by email to digitaldemocracy@parliament.uk

Whilst it would help us to have received evidence on legislation by the end of March, we recognise that the themes overlap and you may prefer to cover two or more themes in a single response at any point over the next few months.

Alternatively you can submit your comments via our web forum. [...]

For more information on the commission, please see its Website.

Click here for our earlier post on Speaker Bercow’s speech, Designing a Parliament for the 21st Century, that called for this commission.

HT @iaincollins

Filed under: Applications, Calls for evidence, Policy debates, Policy Materials, Technology developments Tagged: British Parliament, Citizens' legal communication, Citizens' participation in lawmaking, Citizens' participation in legislative drafting, Citizens' participation in legislative process, Citizens' participation in parliamentary process, Citizens' participation in policy making, Designing a Parliament for the 21st Century, eparliament systems, eparliaments, John Bercow, Legal communication, Legislative communication systems, Legislative information systems, Making laws in a digital age, Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy, UK Parliament



via Legal Informatics Blog http://ift.tt/1g3StVa