Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
The main purpose of launching the eLaw initiative was to enhance the Government
to Citizen (G2C) services. Nowadays, draft bills, government bills and the Federal
Law Gazettes are stored and made accessible to the general pubic free of charge via
the internet. Hence, it is possible also for people not having been directly involved in
the legislative process, to get a deep insight into the genesis and future amendments
of any law, which improves transparency of the legislative process considerably. The
eLaw system has also increased efficiency of the Austrian administration itself because
all participants use one and the same system for the Electronic File System and
the eLaw System. The electronic internet version of the Federal Law Gazettes receives
about 95,000 hits per month. Promulgating laws electronically has also eliminated
printing costs (about €400,000 per year).
The project was officially launched in June 2001 following a formal decision of the
Council of Ministers to establish the e-law system. The Federal Chancellery was
made responsible for its implementation together with private companies. The pilot
project started in March 2002 involving six ministries. After training its future users,
the functionality and usability of the system were first put to test and, subsequently,
activated. The eLaw workflow software includes: web based user interface, handling
of processes spanning several organisations, XML-based data transfer, conversion
into several data formats (e.g., PDF), and digital signature of the final version (Federal
Law Gazette). The creation of electronic texts within the law making process
follows the layout guidelines of the Constitutional Service. Based on these guidelines,
MS WinWord-based templates were developed, which facilitate the structuring
of texts and the layout design for the Federal Ministries.
The first stage of eLaw was finalized in mid-2002. At this stage, it was possible to
process a legislative bill fully electronically from its first draft to the (then still) paperbased
publication of the Federal Law Gazette. The second stage of eLaw was dedicated
to the integration of the electronic signature into the process in order to be able
to promulgate laws electronically on the internet and to finally abandon the paperbased
promulgation of laws. The system is operational since the beginning of 2004.
The electronic legislative system represents a fundamental cultural change. The legally
valid version of a law is no longer paper based; instead it is published on the
internet. The electronic signature on the legal texts warrants their authenticity and
completeness. All Austrian laws are promulgated via internet and may be accessed
free of charge. As of 1st November 2006, there are more than 2,400 issues of the
Federal Law Gazettes published on the internet.
The main aims of the project are:
• Continuous electronic support of legislation;
• Error prevention by elimination of duplicates;
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