REVIEW OF THE 3rd INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE

“Information Technology and Law (Legal Informatization - 2010)”

25 November 2010 the 3rd International Scientific and Practical Conference “Information Technology and Law (Legal Informatization – 2010)”took place at the National Library of Belarus. The conference was held by the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus and the UNESCO Chair in Information Technologies and Law of the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus with a view to discuss current problems, as well as exchange experiences in the field of legal informatization and access to official legal information.

Participants of the latest international forum were representatives of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus, the Secretaries of the House of Representatives and the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the National Center of Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus, the Ministry of Communications and Informatization of the Republic of Belarus, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, as well as representatives of other state bodies and organizations, public associations, distribution organizations of legal information, researches, teaching staffs of education institutions.

Among the representatives of foreign and international organizations that participated in the conference were the representatives of the EurAsEC Integration Committee, the Scientific and Technology Center of Legal Information “System” of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Scientific Center of Legal Information at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, the republican state enterprise the Republican Center of Legal Information of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Russian State Library, as well as specialists in the field of legal informatization from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania.

A wide range of issues were considered at the conference concerning:

• development and improvement of a state system of legal information of the Republic of Belarus;
• current problems of improving legislation in the field of legal informatization;
• domestic and foreign experiences of dissemination and the provision of legal information;
• improvement of linguistic support in databases and databanks of legal information;
• applied aspects of the use of modern information technologies in legal activities;
• interstate exchange of legal information.

Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Belarus Valery V. Mitskevichaddressed the welcome speech to the participants of the conference and wished them fruitful work noting relevance and the need to consider processes of the development of legal informatization as an integral part of the information society.

During the conference 15 plenary reportswere heard.

In the report of the director of the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus Oleg E. Kravtsov, “The State System of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus – a Key Element of Information and Legal Policy of the State” provided information on the main areas of activities of the Centre for development and improvement of the state system of legal information in the Republic of Belarus, based on the analysis of certain aspects of the functionality of the abovementioned system as an integral component of information and legal state policy, and certain aspects of interstate exchange of legal information.

One of directions of the foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus is to promote the integration of our country into the world information space, and support for mutually beneficial international cooperation in the field of information and informatization. The report of the first Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Belarus Alexander V. Bileichik, “Interstate Exchange of Legal Information: Prospects for Development” was devoted to certain aspects of the solution of the abovementioned tasks, in which the main areas of activities of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus in the implementation of state policy in the field of international exchange of information were disclosed, and which also presented an analysis of the current state of and the potential for development of an interstate exchange of legal information within the interstate associations and the legal framework for international cooperation in the legal sphere.

Chairman of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus Viktor S. Kamenkov gave a presentation on “The Development of “Electronic Justice” – One of the Most Important Tasks of the Legal Informatization of Economic Courts of the Republic of Belarus,” informing the participants of the current issues of the development of an information system and technologies used in the system of economic justice of the Republic of Belarus.

В докладах начальника управления учреждений культуры и народного творчества Министерства культуры Республики Беларусь Vladimir N. Shevelev, the Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus Elena E. Dolgopolova and the Head of the Department of Official and Normative Editions of the Russian State Library Emma A. Voskanyan participants were provided with information on the main issues of the development of a system for citizen access to legal information through the establishment and operation of public centers of legal information in public libraries of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation, as well as innovative forms of information services for citizens as exemplified by the National Library of Belarus and the Russian State Library.

The Head of Software Development of the Information Systems Department of the Scientific Center of Legal Information at the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation Nikolai Y. Blagoveschensky gave a presentation on the history of creating the system “Normative Legal Acts of the Russian Federation” as a Single system of information and telecommunication support for the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, and the organization of information flows within the system, as well as on the potential for its development.

Deputy Director of the Institute for Legal Research of the National Center of Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus Igor I. Makh highlighted issues of information support for control and supervisory activities in the Republic of Belarus in his report.

The conference allowed participants to exchange views concerning the use of modern information technologies in the legal system of the state in order to build information and legal space and guarantee equal access to legal information.

Upon reviewing the problems of legal informatization in order to realize its promising directions, these key decisions formed the basis of the Final Conference Document adopted by the parties.

In the Final Document, participants of the conference identified and proposed solutions for the development and implementation in practice of legal information systems and technologies for “e-government” in the following priority areas for the development of legal informatization:

development and consistent implementation of scientifically grounded approaches, projects and programs aimed at creating a single information and legal space for each state, and a coordinated information and legal space within the framework for interstate formations;

consistent formation and development of national and regional (interregional) legal information systems, including through the establishment and improvement of databanks of legal information, also containing the decisions of government bodies at all levels, the results of enforcement activities of state bodies, and official translations of normative legal acts, etc.;

improvement of the legislation of states in the field of legal informatization due to determining the institutional and legal basis (principles) of state policy in the field of legal informatization at national levels and the creation of legal information systems based on modern information technologies;

implementation, into national legislation, of the main provisions of the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Promotion and Use of Multilingualism and Universal Access to Cyberspace, as well as Guidelines for the Development and Promotion of Government Information in the Public Domain, the creation of legal mechanisms to guarantee access to legal information and information on the activities of state bodies;

formation of single conceptual approaches and the development of international cooperation in the training of specialists in the field of legal informatization;

development of the system of interstate exchange of legal information in order to build a single information and legal space.