The aim of the study was to identify the legal mechanisms for the establishment of e-government and the development of e-governance from the perspective of international law and national legislation of countries where the level of e-governance is very high. Empirical and theoretical methods of scientific knowledge, as well as the comparative analysis were used for a comprehensive coverage of the research topic. It is found that the community-oriented principles are the basis for the functioning of e-government with a view to the digital transformation values. The establishment of digital government in different countries with a very high level of e-governance has its own peculiarities related to the status of the national legal framework, institutional capacity and economic development, information policy and information security. It was established that the e-governance should be improved by eliminating the digital gap, raising the level of digital literacy, creating a single competent authority to regulate public e-governance policy, introducing a network system of access to e-government services, and establishing a system for training civil servants on the provision of electronic services. Further research on e-governance may be focused on follow-up study and argumentation in order to determine effective legal tools of its regulation.