I need to keep in practice with my French, so I've translated the README below. Let me know if I got anything wrong.<p>------<p><i>The French Civil Code, in Git</i><p><i>Introduction</i><p>Here is a little hack, the result of an afternoon of code: the Civil Code in Git.<p>If one considers the law as a set of texts modified by the various assemblies of the state, one can consider them as a set of text files created collaboratively.<p>The members of government, and the various assemblies, work in collaboration on these files, which, once voted for, are written into the Code (here the Civil Code).<p>But there is another category of people who, for fifty years now, have worked on text files collaboratively, and excel at it: developers. They have created extremely effective collaboration and tracking tools for working on source code. The most popular to date is Git.<p>Git not only allows you to view the source at a time T (snapshot) but above all to easily visualize the changes in the source (commits). In the analogy to the Civil Code, this permits the tracking of the changes made by a law.<p>Combine all of this with the Open Source philosophy, and the second part of the analogy is made: the modification of source code in an open and public fashion.<p>Finally, the Civil Code is a part of the source code of France. And source code belongs in source control. Period.<p><i>Example</i><p>Here is for example the commit which authorizes marriage for all: <a href="https://github.com/steeve/france.code-civil/commit/b805ecf05a86162d149d3d182e04074ecf72" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/steeve/france.code-civil/commit/b805ecf05...</a><p>This is more readable than, for example (cf <a href="http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/ta/ta0120.asp" rel="nofollow">http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/14/ta/ta0120.asp</a>):<p>"At article 165 of the same code, the word: 'before' is replaced by the words: 'during a republican ceremony by'."<p><i>Technical Note</i><p>Git dates are based on the Unix epoch (01/01/1970), changes before these dates are all dated 01/01/1970, with incremental seconds; the commit message gives the correct date.<p><i>LICENSE</i><p>All files are licensed under Creative Commons (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="nofollow">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a>).