International Journal of Law And Criminology
42
https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ijlc
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue03 2025
PAGE NO.
42-47
10.37547/ijlc/Volume05Issue03-11
The role and importance of information technologies in
the process of norm-making
Hamdamov Shahzod Maqsud oglu
Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan, Institute of State and Law, Fundamental doctoral student, Uzbekistan
Received:
29 January 2025;
Accepted:
28 February 2025;
Published:
31 March 2025
Abstract:
This scientific research paper examines the use of information technologies in the process of norm
creation, their role, and importance in the normative legal activity. Moreover, this article focuses on studying the
legal foundations for implementing information technologies in the norm-making process through national
legislation. Additionally, the article provides a theoretical and legal analysis of the functioning of the information
systems currently used in norm creation and their legal bases.
Keywords:
Justice, norm, digitalization, information, legislation, normative-legal act, norm-making, technology,
portal, electronic system, digital signature.
Introduction:
One of the priority tasks of justice bodies
is the quality organization of the normative legal act
drafting process, the establishment of consistent and
uniform application of the law, ensuring the
effectiveness of the state administration system, and
raising the legal culture of the population.
As a result of the digitization of the Ministry of Justice,
new electronic systems have been introduced for the
development, review, and approval of normative legal
documents.
These
systems
include
“Regulation.gov.uz”, “Project.gov.uz”, “E
-
qaror” and
“Lex.uz”.
In discussing the modern trends in the development of
digitization in the justice sector, Deputy Minister of
Justice Kh. Meliyev stated that digitization now covers
all areas of the Ministry’s activities. He po
inted out that
today, nearly 50 major information systems are
functioning within the Ministry, including the National
Database of Legislative Acts of the Republic of
Uzbekistan (Lex.uz), the Unified Electronic System for
Drafting and Coordinating Normative Legal Documents
(Project.gov.uz), the Portal for the Discussion of Draft
Normative Legal Acts (Regulation.gov.uz), “Notarius”
Information System, the Non-Governmental Non-Profit
Organizations Portal (E-ngo.uz), and other large
information systems .
These systems play an important role today in helping
the population become familiar with the national
legislative system and in resolving their issues easily
and conveniently. It would be beneficial to familiarize
ourselves with the activities of these systems.
The Portal for the Discussion of Draft Normative Legal
Acts, “Regulation.gov.uz”. In our country, the
discussion of legislative document drafts is carried out
through the “Regulation.gov.uz” portal. The Portal for
the Discussion of Draft Normative Legal Acts
(regulation.gov.uz)
introduces
modern
digital
technologies into the process of developing, discussing,
and adopting normative legal documents, ensuring
transparency and speed. At the same time, documents
are developed in paperless electronic form. According
to the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on “Normative
Legal Acts” draft normative legal documents must be
placed on the Portal for Public Discussion in accordance
with the procedure established by law.
Looking at the history of the creation of this system, the
Unified
State
Interactive
Services
Portal
(www.my.gov.uz) was launched on July 1, 2013, to
provide the public with access to interactive state
services. On March 17, 2015, the Open Data Portal of
the Republic of Uzbekistan (data.gov.uz) was put into
operation. As a logical continuation of these efforts, the
system for evaluating the impact of legislative
documents was launched as a separate portal. This
system was launched on January 1, 2015, initially as a
section of the Unified State Interactive Services Portal
and made available to the public.
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International Journal of Law And Criminology (ISSN: 2771-2214)
The Portal for the Discussion of Normative Legal Acts of
the Republic of Uzbekistan was developed based on the
Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of
Uzbekistan Resolution No. 328, dated December 2,
2014, and is the first version of the system for assessing
the impact of legislative acts.
The launch of this portal includes a number of priority
goals and tasks. Specifically, it aims to identify the
potential
(or
actual)
positive
and
negative
consequences that may arise when adopting a
normative legal act by analyzing the issue, its regulatory
objectives, and existing solutions. It also seeks to
identify provisions in the draft or adopted normative
legal act that may create conditions for corruption or
other violations within the system of state authority
and governance, or introduce excessive administrative
and other restrictions on business entities, or create
conditions for such restrictions. Additionally, it seeks to
identify provisions that could lead to unnecessary costs
for business entities. These objectives are the main
goals of the portal.
The portal hosts draft laws and adopted normative
legal acts related to entrepreneurial activities,
developed by government bodies. It allows all
registered users the opportunity to provide their
suggestions on these documents. The submitted
suggestions are then reviewed by the relevant
government div that posted the draft or adopted
normative legal act, and they will either be accepted or
responded to with a reasoned rejection.
It is important to note that, starting in 2018, all drafts
of normative legal acts have been posted by the
organizations that developed them on the Portal for
the Discussion of Draft Normative Legal Acts
–
“Regulation.gov.uz” for public discussion.
Moreover, the Presidential Decree No. PF-6075, dated
September 27, 2020, established that the impact
assessment of the regulatory framework for draft
normative legal acts must be carried out by the
responsible agency or organization through the use of
the Portal for the Discussion of Draft Normative Legal
Acts (Regulation.gov.uz). Currently, “ochiq platforma”
an “open platform” has been launched on this portal,
enabling cooperation with the public, the business
community, academic circles, and civil society
institutions. This platform facilitates the introduction of
feedback mechanisms related to the implementation
of the adopted legislative acts, utilizes “kraudsorsing”
opportunities to assess the impact of legislative acts on
legal practice, and conducts online surveys. The public
can evaluate the drafts of normative legal acts posted
on the Portal for the Discussion of Draft Normative
Legal Acts (Regulation.gov.uz) by filling out a checklist
to assess potential corruption factors.
According to statistical data, as of February 18, 2025, a
total of 280 draft normative legal acts have been
submitted for discussion via the “Regulation.gov.uz”
system. Of these, 252 drafts have completed the
discussion process, while 28 drafts are still under
review.
The Unified Electronic System for the Development and
Coordination of Normative Legal Acts (Project.gov.uz)
is used for the development and coordination of
normative legal acts. This process is carried out
electronically through a specialized information system
for the coordination of normative legal acts. According
to the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan on “Normative
Legal Acts”, the coordination of drafts is mandated to
be conducted electronically through this special
information system.
Additionally, in accordance with the Resolution No. 284
of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, dated April 8, 2019, on the “Organizational
Measures for the Implementation of the Unified
Electronic System for the Development and
Coordi
nation of Normative Legal Acts”, the
development, coordination (signing), and submission
of drafts for laws, Presidential documents, and
Government resolutions are to be carried out through
this Unified Electronic System. The Ministry of Justice is
responsible for providing methodological guidance in
the use of this system in regulatory activities and for
continuously monitoring the processes within the
system.
Looking at the operation of this system, we can see
that, starting from January 1, 2019, the system was
launched as a pilot project on the global Internet
network. The system was established by the Ministry of
Justice in collaboration with the Ministry for the
Development of Information Technologies and
Communications and the “UZINFACOM” state
information service creation and support integrator.
The Resolution No. 284 of the Cabinet of Ministers,
dated April 8, 2019, was adopted to ensure the
continuous operation of the Unified Electronic System,
guarantee the necessary transparency of the
development and coordination processes of normative
legal acts, and accelerate these procedures.
This system facilitates the electronic approval (review)
of normative legal act drafts, which simplifies the
process of regulatory development.
The Unified Electronic System enables the execution of
the following tasks related to regulatory development:
-
To allow the review and approval of drafts of
normative legal acts by all relevant ministries, agencies,
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and local executive authorities, using an electronic
signature. This includes enabling simultaneous and
rapid submission for public and expert discussion.
-
To ensure the transparency of the review and
approval process of normative legal acts by
automatically recording actions, dates of submission,
and receipt.
-
To verify the authenticity of electronic
signatures, including the validity and relevance of the
approvals (signatures).
-
To collect and store information about the
actions taken, proposals, and objections from relevant
ministries, agencies, and local executive authorities
regarding the drafts of normative legal acts during the
review and approval process.
-
To maintain a unified electronic database of
normative legal act drafts, including information about
the development process and coordination carried out
through the Unified Electronic System by relevant
ministries, agencies, and local executive authorities.
This system also aids in forming information-analytical
and statistical data.
-
To manage, monitor, and control the process of
developing and coordinating drafts of normative legal
acts in real time with relevant ministries, agencies, and
local executive authorities.
-
To significantly save time and labor resources
during the process of drafting and coordinating
normative legal acts with relevant ministries, agencies,
and local executive authorities.
It should also be noted that this system has facilitated
the practice of accepting departmental normative legal
acts.
As of now, more than 200 ministries, agencies, local
executive authorities, other state bodies, and
organizations are connected to the “Project.gov.uz”
system. Since its launch, the Ministry of Justice has
processed and approved over 700 draft documents
through this electronic platform for legal expertise.
The Unified Electronic System for the Development,
Coordination, and Registration of Decisions Adopted by
Local Government Authorities (E-qaror.gov.uz) is one of
the key directions of digitalizing the activities of the
Ministry of Justice. On December 29, 2020, in his
address to the Oliy Majlis, President Sh. M. Mirziyoyev
emphasized the need to ensure transparency in the
decision-making process of local government leaders.
He pointed out that nearly 2,500 decisions made by
local authorities were annulled by the courts over the
past two years, underlining the necessity of
implementing an electronic information system for
recording and publishing decisions made by local
government authorities.
The document addresses the integration of modern
information technologies into the activities of local
government authorities with the aim of improving the
process of local normative legal acts, ensuring
transparency in the decision-making process of local
authorities concerning citizens and business activities,
and preventing the adoption of illegal documents by
local governments. In accordance with the Decree of
the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan
No. 218, dated April 14, 2020, the Ministry of Justice
has launched the unified electronic "E-decree" system
for the development, coordination, and registration of
decisions made by local government heads. This system
is designed to completely automate the decision-
making process for local government heads in an
electronic format.
The Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan
oversees the continuous monitoring of the process
through the system, which includes adopting,
registering, assigning unique special numbers to
decisions, and automatically publishing them. It
ensures the effective use of the system by local
executive bodies, other government agencies, and
organizations, and provides methodological guidance
on its application.
To expand the use of the unified electronic system for
the development, coordination, and registration of
decisions made by local government authorities, as
well as to strengthen the legal validity and legal
protection of electronic documents, the government
has outlined legal measures in various normative legal
documents for cases where local government decisions
are not implemented electronically.
Specifically, according to the Decree No. 390 of the
Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan,
“Measures for the Introduction of “E
-
qaror” Electronic
System in the Activities of Local Government
Authorities”, local government authorities are not
allowed to adopt relevant decisions and orders
bypassing
“E
-
qaror”
electronic
system.
Such
documents do not have legal force and will not have
any legal consequences from the moment they are
adopted. Furthermore, the Decree assigns a number of
tasks to the Ministry of Justice. In particular, the
Ministry of Justice is responsible for continuously
monitoring the process of drafting, coordinating,
adopting, registering, and publishing decisions and
orders of local government authorities exclusively
through “E
-
qaror” electronic system; applying
measures to the heads and responsible employees of
interested organizations who fail to respond within the
prescribed time frame to the decisions and orders of
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local
government
authorities
submitted
for
coordination through the “E
-
decree” system; and, in
collaboration with the Ministry for Development of
Information Technologies and Communications,
continuously improving “E
-
qaror” electronic system .
The Ministry of Justice also organizes the delivery of
documents adopted by local government heads to
interested organizations and executors, posts drafts of
normative legal documents for public discussion on the
portal for public discussion of normative legal
documents (Regulation.gov.uz) in the prescribed
manner, and ensures that adopted normative legal
documents are registered by the state and submitted
to the “Lex.uz” system.
The launch of “E
-qar
or” system has created a number
of conveniences. First, it ensures legality and the rule of
law. All decisions that can be adopted by the head of
the local government are analyzed in the system, and
nearly 100 model decision drafts, which have
undergone various expert reviews by relevant
ministries and departments, have been included. This
provides convenience for the drafters of the head’s
decisions and helps prevent violations of the law.
Additionally, all processes from the development to the
adoption of the decision are monitored by justice
authorities.
Secondly, transparency in the activities of local
government heads is enhanced. Each decision adopted
through
“E
-
qaror” electronic system is assigned a
unique special number on the website “E
-qaror.gov.u
z”
and is automatically published. This allows all citizens,
media representatives, and the general public to
familiarize themselves with these decisions. This, in
turn, enables public oversight over the process of
normative legal act drafting by local authorities,
providing an opportunity to quickly address any
existing legal violations.
Thirdly, information and communication technologies
are implemented in the sector. The adoption of
decisions by local government heads through the
electronic system serves to increase labor productivity.
That is, the processes of coordinating decisions,
registering them, and assigning numbers are all carried
out electronically. Furthermore, the decisions adopted
by local government heads through “E
-
qaror” system
are automatically published on the official websites of
the respective local governments and in the national
database of legislative information systems of the
Republic of Uzbekistan
–
“Lex.uz”.
Fourthly, the role and position of citizens in public
oversight
are
strengthened.
Specifically,
by
implementing “E
-
qaror” electronic system in all local
governments in the country, the active participation of
citizens in the process of local normative legal act
drafting is ensured. It provides the opportunity to
address issues where the constitutional rights and
freedoms of citizens may be violated by local
authorities, and to prevent the establishment of rules
and regulations that may create conditions for
corruption, other illegal activities in the state authority
and management system, as well as unnecessary
administrative costs for business entities caused by
unjustified administrative barriers and restrictions.
Overall, the introduction of the “E
-
qaror” electronic
system has led to a reduction in the timeframes for the
adoption of decisions and orders by local government
authorities, a decrease in human interference and
involvement in their development, and, importantly,
has created the opportunity for the public to constantly
access information about these decisions and orders.
According to statistical data, as of now, a total of
624,728 documents of local government authorities
have been processed through “E
-
qaror” electronic
system, including 347,267 decisions of the local
government heads, 150,204 orders of the heads, and
127,257 council decisions.
The national database of legislative information of the
Republic of Uzbekistan
–
Lex.uz. Published documents
are made available in the official state publications,
including official websites or electronic databases. In
our country, normative legal documents are published
in the “Lex.uz” system, and they are stored in this
system. (For reference, since 2017, the “Lex.uz” system
has been granted the status of the official source for
the publication of normative legal documents.) These
norms are set forth in legislative documents.
Specifically, the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On
Normative Legal Documents” recognizes the “National
Database of Legislative Information of the Republic of
Uzbekistan
–
Lex.uz” as one of the offi
cial sources for
the publication of normative legal documents, which is
a significant development. This is because the National
Database of Legislative Information of the Republic of
Uzbekistan operates in accordance with the “Law on
the Distribution and P
rovision of Legal Information”
and the Decree of the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, dated February 8, 2017, No. PQ-2761, on
“Measures to Radically Improve the System of
Distribution of Legal Documents”
. This system allows
for the easy and convenient search and review of
normative legal documents.
The Ministry of Justice receives the texts of normative
legal documents and related materials in both paper
and electronic formats from state bodies and
organizations. It ensures that these materials are sent
electronically to all state bodies and organizations
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based on a list defined by the Cabinet of Ministers. The
Ministry is responsible for the official publication of
normative legal documents, their registration with the
state, and the systematization of legislation.
Additionally, the Ministry forms and manages the
National Database of Legislative Information of the
Republic of Uzbekistan, ensuring that both individuals
and legal entities can use it in the prescribed manner.
The official publication of normative legal documents in
the “Lex.uz” system is carried out within one day from
the moment the documents are received by the
Ministry of Justice and are processed in the “Official
Publication
of
Normative
Legal
Documents”
department within the Ministry.
Furthermore, according to the Decree No. PF-6075 of
the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, dated
September 27, 2020, all existing decisions of the
chambers of the Supreme Assembly of the Republic of
Uzbekistan and the normative legal documents of local
government authorities must be included in the
National Database of Legislative Information of the
Republic of Uzbekistan. Based on this, the Cabinet of
Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in
collaboration with the Ministry of Justice and local
government bodies (the Council of Ministers of the
Republic of Karakalpakstan, regional authorities, and
the Tashkent city administration), initiated work to
systematize local government normative legal
documents and cancel outdated and irrelevant
documents by June 1, 2021. A mechanism for
automatically uploading normative legal documents to
the national database was also introduced. The
Ministry of Justice was appointed as the coordinating
div for assessing the regulatory impact of normative
legal documents and their drafts.
As of December 6, 2024, the Lex.uz system contains
140,580 documents, including 19,897 legislative
documents, 16,036 presidential documents, 34,620
government decisions, 24,985 documents from
ministries, state committees, and agencies, 24,125
local government decisions, 1,012 judicial documents,
4,828 international documents, 9,287 documents from
the chambers of the Supreme Assembly (the Supreme
Council, the Presidium of the Supreme Assembly),
3,977 technical documents, 1,619 judicial practices,
and 194 documents from the Central Election
Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan .
CONCLUSION
From the above considerations, it can be concluded
that the introduction of modern information
technologies at all stages of the normative legal act
drafting process improves the quality of the adopted
documents and ensures the participation of the public
in the process. This, in turn, helps prevent
shortcomings in the drafts of normative legal
documents being developed. Additionally, the use of
information technologies in the legislative process
reduces bureaucracy, unnecessary paperwork, and
inefficiencies, thereby improving the performance of
participants in the process.
Overall, the implementation of digital technologies in
the normative legal act drafting process ensures the
openness and transparency of the review process for
normative legal act drafts, allowing citizens, media
representatives, and the public to familiarize
themselves with the drafts. Furthermore, it leads to a
reduction in the time taken to adopt normative legal
documents, minimizes human involvement and
interference in their development, and provides the
public with continuous access to these documents.
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