GitLaw - Using version control software to build laws collaboratively

__Group__: 4 - Implementation of open government and new actors __Track__: 10 - Open parliament __Type__: Workshop __Language__: en __Committee Rating__: 5.00 / 5 (2 votes) __Public Rating__: 5.00 / 5 (5 votes) ### Abstract A number of people have tried to invert Lawrence Lessig's "Code is Law" metaphor by looking at legal documents through the lens of distributed version control systems commonly used by computer code developers. The legislative processes of building and editing bills and laws iteratively is indeed very similar to collaborative software development; thus it makes sense to try to use tools such as git to track versions of legal documents. In both cases, a group of people collaborate to edit textual data (bills or source code files), propose changes (amendments or patches), decide on whether to include them (votes or change requests), and iterate until a stable version is made available (promulgation or relase). Exciting initiatives have already taken this new approach to law-tracking, most notably in Germany with the BundesGit project, and in France with the La Fabrique de la Loi project. Some government-funded agencies, like Etalab in France, even tried to have a grasp on the idea. Emerging, but nonetheless very interesting initiatives also exist in the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Japan... What if a common framework for tracking versions of legal documents could be defined? Which existing tools can help in the process, what are the shortcomings encountered by the various GitLaw initiatives around the world and what could be done to overcome them? What insights could these tools provide on law building and editing processes, both for citizens and political researchers, and can those insights be used to enhance or simplify them? Let's try and answer together these many questions! ### Description post-its, whiteboard, projector, wifi ### [submitter - Regards Citoyens](https://fr.ogpsummit.org/osem/users/1295) #### Biography [Regards Citoyens](http://www.RegardsCitoyens.org) is a french organization of citizens volunteering from all regions to work together on promoting political transparency and providing a better understanding of the French democratic institutions by re-using public information. They actively promote public Open Data principles in France since 2009 and lobbying transparency since 2010. They create web projects using public data to provide tools for a better dialogue between citizens and representatives. Their most known initiative is the parliamentary monitoring website: [NosDéputés.fr](http://www.NosDeputes.fr). ### Other Informations __Creation Date__: 2016-07-20 21:17:09 __Update Date__: 2016-07-20 21:17:09 __Expected Audience__: 40
Il s'agit d'un sujet en provenance de l'article https://ogpsummit.org/osem/conference/ogp-summit/program/proposal/612

Upvoted + Would love to be a part of this!

Hi,

I’m working with https://www.endecocide.org/, on a synergy of dynamics.
I invite you to discover also the topic that I launched on Holocratie et gestion holistique des biens communs
I hope there is a spontaneous translation service here, because my first language is French…