[raphman]

As discussed in the linked HN discussion, VCS/diffs are not compatible with the established workflow for discussing and changing laws. However, as far as I understand, this repository is not primarily intended as a tool for supporting lawmakers but serves two purposes:

a) It allows the public to track all changes made to a law.

b) it allows NGOs and other parties to suggest changes to a law by forking the repo and sending a pull request. [1]

In summary: no revolutionary shift but a nice tool.

[1] https://github.com/bundestag/gesetze/pull/2/files

[ubershmekel]

This is about as revolutionary as officially letting the plebs read the bible.

Pretty damn revolutionary.

[_delirium]

Anyone can already read the laws, though. I'm less sure that reading them specifically via git is a major revolution. it's possible something compelling will be built on top of it, I'll admit.

For the U.S. code, something like Cornell's LII interface, which for a long time has displayed both the current version of the law and, for any section, the history of amendments to that section, seems more user-friendly than a git repo: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text

[cbs]

>I'm less sure that reading them specifically via git is a major revolution.

You're very right. The hard part is knowing where to look in the documents, not where to go to find the documents.

In a former life I spent a bit of time with my nose in the CFR. The hard part was finding the which regulations pertain to me, googling for "47 cfr 73.3526" was a cake walk.