The publication provides a detailed description of the results of an EU-funded study entitled “Overview of smart functionalities in drafting legislation in LEOS”. The research was conducted by the Hellenic OCR Team under an eight-month long study contract from June 2023 to February 2024. The work draws on the results of a 2022 study on “Drafting legislation in the era of AI and digitisation”, referred to as the reference study, and provides solid input on the possible further development of LEOS (Legislative Editing Open Source) [1] toward an "augmented LEOS" capable of effectively supporting existing legal processes at EC level, while exploiting state-of-the-art technology.

The study confirms, updates, and expands upon the findings of the reference study. It particular centres on smart functionalities, i.e., advanced and intelligent software capabilities to enhance the performance of the LEOS system using both AI and legacy technologies. It provides inter alia an extended list of smart functionalities, a detailed assessment of the associated business value, a prioritisation and an in-depth investigation for their implementation, also addressing their deployment in the public sector. Additionally, acknowledging the emergence of Large Language Models (LLMs), the study explores their utilisation in drafting legislation. Potential implications and applications of LLMs in the legislative processes are analysed. Ultimately, the study structures a high-level framework and roadmap for further work, outlining the necessary steps and milestones for the successful realisation of the augmented LEOS system.

The results are based on extensive desk research and a set of interviews with EC staff conducted in mid-2023. One of the main conclusions is that most smart functionalities can be implemented using ‘classic AI’ without the need to resort to LLMs. 

An update on the studies regarding LEOS for drafting legislation in the era of AI and digitisation will be given at the upcoming LEOS community webinar on 21 June 2024. More details on the webinar can be found here. 

[1]             https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/justice-law-and-security/solution/leos-open-source-software-editing-legislation