USA Africa Dialogue Series - Looking to Draft a Constitution? Now You Can Google It

The inspiration behind the recent launch of Constitute, a new application for lawmakers and those aspiring to draft their first constitution, are cases like Egypt, fresh from a revolution and still grappling with political unrest. It is a platform created by the Comparative Constitutions Project in partnership with Google Ideas and is a tool to "read, search and compare" constitutions from over 170 countries.

"Most people who are drafting constitutions have never done so before and hope to never have to do it again," the project's co-director, Tom Ginsburg, told Foreign Policy. "We seek to empower both potential constitutional drafters and their citizens, so as to better inform the choices they will have to make to establish and preserve lasting national constitutions. With Google's help, we've been able to do just that."

The website allows users to filter for constitutions by country and the 300+ topics, as well as utilize a search function that shows suggested topics while searching.

For example, a search for "abortion" turns up only two countries that have written it into their constitutions. The 2012 Somalian constitution only says that abortion "is contrary to Shari'ah and is prohibited except in cases of necessity, especially to save the life of the mother." Swaziland's 2005 constitution has a conflicted notion of abortion, decreeing it "unlawful but may be allowed."

Link:http://techpresident.com/news/wegov/24440/looking-draft-constitution-now-you-can-google-it

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