Assembling law and technology in the public sector: The case of e-justice reforms

This paper discusses how laws and technology interact when egovernment reforms are designed and deployed in highly regulated public sector organisations. The contribution focuses on how laws and regulations are re-designed into ICTs and the effect this design process has on the performance of public sector organisations. The paper builds on the concepts of functional simplification and closure to depict the particular process by which ICTs moulds laws and regulations. The case of the justice sector is discussed as exemplificative example to discuss how law and ICTs negotiate the regulation of organisational activities into techno-legal assemblages. Building on the finding of the case the paper provides a new dimension to be accounted for when the enactment of ICTs occurs in public sector organisations. The paper suggests that the technical, the legal, as well as the institutional properties that shape e-government projects need to be considered to better understand the impacts of e-government reforms on public sector organizations, the services they deliver, and the value that is generated for the citizens receiving public services.