The world's laws, with a full change history
An open source project stores each country's laws as a timeline, so you can see exactly what changed, and when, like tracked changes in a document.
A timeline for the law
This one turned up in a weekly roundup of trending projects on GitHub, and I keep thinking about it. It's called global-law, and it describes itself as "Git for Global Law."
The idea is simple and a little beautiful. Software developers use a tool called Git to keep a full history of every change to their work. This project borrows that habit for legislation. Each country gets its own legal record, and every saved step in that history is one law taking effect.
Why it caught my eye
Picture tracked changes in a contract, but for a whole country's rulebook. You could ask "what did this rule say last spring, and what does it say now?" and see the exact difference side by side. Or find the moment a specific rule changed.
If you run a business that deals with regulation, or you're building something in compliance, legal tech or AI research, that kind of history is gold. An AI assistant that can see when a rule changed gives far more grounded answers than one guessing from a blurry snapshot.
Words worth knowing
- Git: a tool that records every version of a project, so nothing is ever lost and you can always go back.
- Commit: one saved step in that history. Here, one law coming into force.
- Diff: a comparison that shows exactly what changed between two versions.
Before you rely on it
All I know so far comes from the trending list. Which countries are covered, where the data comes from and how you're allowed to use it still need checking. Worth a look, with a curious eye: github.com/lexifina/global-law
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