Legal Bases for the Operation of E-government in Slovakia

This chapter addresses the state of the art in the sphere of e-government in the Slovak Republic and provides for the presentation and assessment of its fundamental legal regulation and its application, focusing on the most important aspects of e-government, i.e. the electronic mailboxes, electronic submissions by natural and legal persons and deliveries of official documents issued by public administration authorities. Within this, special attention is paid to selected spheres of e-government performance which are typical for the quantity in its appearance, being the general administrative proceedings, tax administration, communication with Social Insurance Company and the courts. Following the latter, the issues connected to the performance of attorneys´ tasks are deeply analysed, focusing on the use of electronic signatures, conversion of documents and elements of e-justice applicable in Slovakia. The authors conclude, that the current legal regulation has developed to a state in which most relevant public authorities´ services are already online accessible and the user comfort of its clients has raised significantly over time, nevertheless, the e-government functions are yet not used by its addressees in the amount that would be desired and expected by the state (especially speaking of individuals), while most authors agree that still low user-friendliness of the e-services provision and too complex regulation with unresolved incompatibility issues of particular public authorities´ systems are to blame.