LK2008: brevity and constitutions

LK2008: brevity and constitutions

Posted Oct 23, 2008 12:39 UTC (Thu) by pdundas (subscriber, #15203)
In reply to: LK2008: The values of the Linux community by nlucas
Parent article: LK2008: The values of the Linux community

There may be reasons why the "constitution" is as long as it it - but the original point (on the concise expression of powerful ideas) stands.

It's interesting to note that the GPL seems to be getting more complex as it evolves. Like laws and constitutions, almost.

Regarding the side-issue of whether the EU doc is a constitution or not - the first, rejected attempt was called a "constitutional treaty" in the UK ("It's not a constitution, honestly!" advocates said).

The second one is also a treaty, but its apologists say it's completely different because "it's not a constitution", some of the jobs like EU foreign minister have been renamed, a few more veto rights remain for the member states, a lot of text is now referenced rather than included, and it's worded as a set of amendments to previous treaties rather than a free-standing replacement treaty.

Sceptics point out that the provisions of the new version are almost the same as the old one.

You get to decide -- if you can read the thousands of pages, and you're either an Irish citizen, or a member of parliament in one of the other EU states.

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