Link to podcast to follow
Let me begin by saying that the heading of today’s article is neither one of my (often predictable) jokes, nor an artificially- inflated over- exaggeration (another thing that I am, apparently, good at).
I was chatting to a friend about life, the universe and everything the other when she told me that it’d be a good idea for countries to follow Iceland’s example.
At first, I thought she meant that it would’ve have been far better for countries to let banks deal with their own mess rather than using public funds to bail them out.
But then she said something about Napoleon and the Code Civil.
Regardless of my rather patchy knowledge of European history, I was pretty sure that neither Napoleon nor the Code Civil had anything to do with banks or public spending.
It was at that point when I realised that I should really start paying more attention to what my friend was saying at the time.
After about five minutes of attentive listening coupled with a fair proportion of disbelief and genuine bewilderment, I finally got to grips what why my friend meant.
‘All I’m saying is’, she said, ‘if Iceland has managed to draft its new constitution through the use of social media, then so should any other country in the world.’
Several questions, however, remained.
One such question, for instance, was:
How, on Earth, was that possible?
(See following for a more detailed account:
Well, to cut a long story short, the citizens of Iceland elected 25 assembly members out of 522 ‘ordinary’ candidates (i.e. lawyers, doctors, professors, etc.) who opened the process up to the public via mediums such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
The said 25 assembly members actively encouraged the general public to take part in suggesting new and commenting on existing constitutional provisions.
Although it sounds very interactive and fun, the process of drafting and perfecting the nine- chapter constitution did take a considerable amount of time and effort.
In the of the day, it took a fair bit of campaigning and advertising (from public speaking events to radio broadcasts) to make more people aware of what was happening and how they could take part in it.
In October 2012, 66% of Icelanders voted ‘YES’ in the referendum and agreed that the end product of the most ambitious social media project so far should be used as a frame for the country’s new constitution.
As someone who’s been interested in law since the age of twelve, I find the above quite astounding.
Contrary to what you might think, that’s not because of the fact that it has all been done through social media.
The reason for my fascination with the Icelandic project stems from the fact that it very much reminds me of, what I consider, the greatest civil code ever written- Napoleon’s Code Civil: a civil code written for the people, in a form devoid of legalese, one that could be understood by farmers and professors alike.
As Napoleon said himself:
‘Waterloo will wipe out the memory of my forty victories; but that which nothing can wipe out is my Civil Code. That will live forever.’
Who knows; maybe it’s high time others followed.
After all, it’s way too early to draw conclusions- we are yet to see the end product of this innovative Icelandic initiative.
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