Legal Regulation of Automated Decision-Making in Public Administration: Finding the Optimal Approach

The trend in recent years has been the active introduction of automated decision‑making systems into public administration, which make it possible to minimize errors, increase the efficiency of government activities, and reduce the costs of public authorities in exercising their powers. Meanwhile, this desire has created a number of new risks for the rights and legitimate interests of man and citizen. These circumstances have prompted legislators from various countries to actively search for optimal approaches to the legal regulation of automated decision‑making. Aims and objectives of the study: to identify and systematize the main approaches of different legal systems to the legal regulation of automated decision‑making in public administration, as well as to propose an optimal approach for Russian legislation. Research methods: general and special methods, including the dialectical method of scientific cognition, systemic‑structural, formal‑legal, comparative‑legal methods, methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalization. Conclusions: the choice of the form of automated decision‑making regulation and its place in the legislative system in each legal order is fragmented, but at the same time there are three conventionally established approaches that will be applied in one form or another in various jurisdictions in the future: point modification of individual acts; regulation within the framework of acts defining the legal regime of public administration or regulating the administrative procedure activities of executive authorities; adoption of a special act. The Russian legislator has followed the path of point‑by‑point changes in individual acts that establish the legal basis for the application of a certain automated procedure. This predetermined the existence of shortcomings, expressed in the lack of consistency and uniformity of the legal framework for regulation and legal means for citizens to protect their rights and interests. In this regard, the most justified and optimal way to regulate automated decision‑making is to adopt a special legal act, within which it is possible to comprehensively create an appropriate legal framework for its application.