Signal Sri Lanka to trial AI-assisted legislation drafting

Summary

Sri Lanka is trialling an AI-assisted system to support the drafting of legislation. The tools are intended to flag potential legal conflicts, suggest standardised legal phrasing and accelerate preparation of draft bills. The system supports rather than replaces the work of legal draftsmen and parliamentary officials, with human experts retaining oversight throughout. The report describes the initiative as one of the most ambitious applications within Sri Lanka's broader digital governance modernisation agenda. Sri Lankan law draws on Roman-Dutch, English common law and customary law, which raises the complexity of applying such tools. Legal professionals and civil society observers are expected to scrutinise accountability, transparency and the adequacy of human oversight.