Digital-ready policymaking: digitalising legislation in Europe and beyond

The notion of ‘digital-readiness’ has expanded its field of action and its definition has evolved. Particularly, ever since policymakers have begun looking into the ways that laws influence the digital transformation of the public sector, it has become entwined with legislation, leading to the emergence of ‘digital-ready policymaking’ in Europe and other experimental projects across the world. By providing examples of good practices linked to this topic, this paper aims to answer the following research questions: a) How did the concept of digital-ready policymaking arise and what does it entail?, and b) What is the state-of-play on digitalising legislation in Europe and beyond?. To do so, a case-study approach is selected, considering initiatives from both European and non-European countries. In its conclusions, this paper shows that Europe has been at the forefront of digitalising legislation, while other geographical areas are at an experimental phase of such a process and may adopt further measures in the future.