Innovations by Jersey’s Computer Readable Legislation Project

11 February 2026

Jersey has taken a major step forward in modern legislative drafting with the publication of the Computer-Readable Legislation Project report. The report was lodged with the Assembly (Jersey's parliament) as R. 24/2026.

The project is run by Jersey's Legislative Drafting Office and aims to make laws easier for everyone to understand - from policymakers and lawyers to businesses and the general public. Using new tools that are being developed by the project, drafters can enable readers to look up definitions through on-screen pop-ups, visualise how laws work using interactive diagrams, and test how legislation behaves in different real-world scenarios. Work with Digital Jersey, Google Cloud AI and a Commonwealth working group has also placed Jersey at the cutting edge of using artificial intelligence safely and transparently with legislation.

The project's innovations have gained international recognition, with Jersey sharing its expertise across the Commonwealth and the wider legal-tech community. These developments are improving the quality of Jersey's legislation today while laying the foundations for smarter, more accessible legislation in the future.

Lucy Marsh-Smith, the Principal Legislative Drafter, said "Our Computer-Readable Legislation Project shows how Jersey can punch far above its weight. By making our legislation easier for both humans and computers to understand, we are reducing errors, improving transparency, and strengthening the rule of law. We are proud that Jersey's Legislative Drafting Office is recognised as a world leader in the global movement to modernise legislation."

Matthew Waddington, the Project Lead, said "Our work demonstrates that good technology (including AI) doesn't replace legislative drafters - it empowers them. Tools like the logic visualiser help readers follow complex provisions when the legislation has to reflect a complex policy. The definition markup tool will help drafters, policy officers, lawyers, businesses and the public to spot words that have been given special meanings in legislation, where currently those meanings are not obvious. We look forward to making more progress in coming years to make Jersey's legislation easier to follow."

The Computer-Readable Legislation Project​ is run by the Legislative Drafting Office​, which is part of the States Greffe​ (which provides the administrative support to the States Assembly) and reports to the Privileges and Procedures Committee​ of the States Assembly (Jersey's parliament).​​​​