[Wikipedia-l] Using Wiki to Draft Laws

[Ray Saintonge]

Michael Bimmler wrote:
> If this was already posted somewhere, sorry in advance..
>
> Using Wiki to Draft Laws
> http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1197175218.shtml
> (New Zealand Police Force uses Wikis to draft a new Police Act)
I don't think the notice was posted, but it's not a bad idea.  I 
casually suggested something of the sort to a few people at 
Wikimania-Frankfurt. At that time the French and Dutch voters had 
rejected the proposed EU constitution, so it only seemed natural to me 
put a Wiki together to draft a new constitution for the EU.

One of the big features of the US Constitution is its brevity.  What the 
EU bureaucrats were proposing weighed a ton.  This says as much about 
the circumstances that led to the drafting of these two documents.  Even 
if one does not agree with everything that was said in the Federalist 
Papers, it's easy to see that the results will be very different from 
the result of the efforts of those who try to drive fast desks with no 
wheels.

While on-wiki legislation is a big ideal, like any major paradigm shift 
it requires a radical rethinking of the way we do things, not to mention 
putting a lot of self-important politicians out of a job.  We have yet 
to master the process for our own internal governance, which still 
allows too many of our own rules and regulations to be adopted by 
default.  We have yet to reconcile the dichotomy between those with a 
determination to establish their vision of order, and those with a 
benign indifference to anything that does not immediately affect them.  
The former want to adapt reality to their rules, and the latter want to 
adpt rules to their reality.  In other contexts this might be seen as 
the classical clash between Type A and Type B personalities.

Perhaps something like this needs to be started on a small level rather 
than a constitutional one.

Ec