Building an information society in Belarus is considered one of the priority tasks of national development. Thus, in a speech at the World Summit on the Information Society on December 11, 2003 in Geneva, the President of the Republic of Belarus A.G. Lukashenko noted that “... people are forming great hopes that life is acquiring a new quality with the development and widespread use of information technologies... "

Real evidence of this understanding is the state system of legal information of the Republic of Belarus, created in accordance with the decisions of the Head of the Belarusian State on the basis of the introduction of modern information technologies in the legal sphere. This system provides, first of all, adequate conditions for the realization of the human right to receive complete, reliable, official legal information and thereby contributes to the formation of the information society. SSLI acts as one of the basic mechanisms that ensure the functioning of government bodies and society, the entire legal system of the state on the basis of advanced information technologies.

The current SSLI model in the country is based on the integrated use of modern ICT in the field of collection, accumulation, systematization and dissemination of legal information, as well as the official publication of legal acts and is a nationwide organizational and technical system for providing complete, reliable and up-to-date regulatory legal information to subjects of legal relations based on the National Register and SDLI.

SSLI is an integral multi-component mechanism that allows you to accumulate legal acts adopted (issued) in the country, maintain them in a controlled state and provide reference legal information to everyone who has a need for it. Initially, the construction of the SSLI was determined by the objective need to create in the Republic of Belarus a normative information legal resource, which is capable of quickly providing state authorities and management bodies, legal entities and citizens with reliable and complete information about the legislation in force in the republic.

As a result of the work carried out by the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus, an effective SSLI model has been created, operates and is developing in the country, which currently consists of the following main components:

1. National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus – a central state scientific and practical institution that collects, records, processes, stores, systematizes and updates standard legal information, its dissemination (provision), expert and analytical activities in these areas, as well as official publication of legal acts created in accordance with Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus of June 30, 1997 No. 338 “On the creation of the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus”;

2. automated system of the formation of a state information regulatory resource created by the NCLI.

It includes:

Standard Databank of Legal Information (SDLI), which, in essence, is a set of legislation of the Republic of Belarus in electronic form, and other databanks of legal information. SDLI was created in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of June 30, 1997 No. 338 and is an information resource of national importance;

National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus (NRLA) as a unified universal system of accounting, registration, processing and official publication of legal acts, created in accordance with Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus of July 20, 1998 No. 369;

The Unified Legal Classifier of the Republic of Belarus, created in accordance with Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated January 4, 1999 No. 1 in order to ensure systematization of legislation, exchange of legal information, maintenance of the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus and the formation of Standard Databank of Legal Information;

3. a comprehensive system of disseminating of legal information, consisting of:

National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus;

National legal Internet portal of the Republic of Belarus;

a single automated information telecommunication system of legal information. of judicial authorities;

regional centers of legal information (NCLI branches);

public centers of legal information;

other organizations distributing legal information in electronic form.

The system of disseminating of legal information includes the dissemination of legal information on electronic and paper media using various organizational and information technology forms of distribution and guarantees the provision of official, complete and up-to-date legal information both through printed publications and in electronic form, including via the Internet.

4. systems of interstate exchange of legal information, including the exchange of legal information within the framework of bilateral treaties, intergovernmental agreements and the creation of an interstate automated system of the exchange of legal information.

Thus, realizing the importance of building a single information legal space, the role of legal culture in the development of civil society, striving to implement the postulates set out in the main documents of the UN, UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Community on access to information, the Okinawa Charter of the Global Information Community, to overcome the existing in society, the so-called “digital divide”, the Republic of Belarus has taken real steps towards the introduction of information technologies into the law.

The country has created a unique state interdepartmental automated system of management of legal resource, which has actually been implemented at all levels of government of the republic and which has made it possible to create and constantly maintain up to date a unified official and complete state regulatory and legal information resource in the country.

At the same time, a characteristic feature of the Belarusian model of the state system of legal information is that the state practically took upon itself responsibility for creating a system of the widest access of the population to legal information, assigning these functions, first of all, in accordance with the Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus of June 30, 1997. No. 338 to the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus (NCLI) as a central state scientific and practical institution in the field of legal informatization and the creation of a state system of legal information, giving it the functions of a real ideologist and coordinator of these processes.

The legal basis of the development of legal informatization, the formation of SSLI and the creation of its actually functioning model were the Edicts of the President of the Republic of Belarus:

of June 30, 1997 No. 338 “On the creation of the National Center of Legal Information of the Republic of Belarus”;

of July 20, 1998 No. 369 “On the National Register of Legal Acts of the Republic of Belarus”;

of July 24, 1998 No. 376 “On the creation of a computer data bank of draft laws of the Republic of Belarus”;

of October 30, 1998 No. 524 “On measures of improvement of the state system of legal information”;

of January 4, 1999 No. 1 “On approval of the Unified Legal Classifier of the Republic of Belarus”;

of December 16, 2002 No. 609 “On the National Legal Internet Portal of the Republic of Belarus and on introducing amendments and additions to the Edict of the President of the Republic of Belarus of October 30, 1998 No. 524”;

of December 30, 2010 No. 712 “On improving the state system of legal information of the Republic of Belarus”;

of June 15, 2015 No. 243 “On electronic document management in the preparation and adoption of legal acts.”

Today, SSLI allows all categories of citizens to use official and up-to-date legal information.

Regulatory legal information (legislation) is a part of the historical and cultural heritage, the property of the people of the Republic of Belarus, their documentary memory.