The official summary
The summary is a plain-language account of the Constitution as a whole and of every article within it. It is drafted by the Office, tested by a body drawn by lot, and carries no legal force.
Article 315(1): an official summary is published of this Constitution as a whole and of every article within it, stating in plain and direct language what the provision does, whom it binds and what it requires.
Article 315(2): the summary is drafted by this Office, is examined by a deliberative body drawn by lot under Article 142 for intelligibility, and is revised upon the observations that body records.
Article 315(3): the summary carries no legal force. It in no case creates, extends, restricts or interprets a right, an obligation or a competence, and no court decides a matter upon it.
Testing for intelligibility
A deliberative body drawn by lot reads the summary and records where it fails to be understood. The Office revises upon those observations. The test is whether residents can follow the text, and the body drawn by lot is composed to reflect the population in age, gender, territory, occupation and condition.
The body examining the current summary recorded 214 observations. Every one produced a revision or a written answer explaining why the wording stands.
What the summary cannot do
The summary carries no legal force, and that works in three directions at once: the summary creates nothing, alters nothing, and interprets nothing, and no court may decide a matter upon it. A reader relying on the summary and finding it at odds with the text has the text.
Every person therefore has the right to report a divergence and to receive a reasoned answer, and Article 317(1) requires the Office to correct the summary. Reporting a divergence
Corrections made
| Article | Divergence reported | Correction |
|---|---|---|
| Article 128(3) | The summary stated a turnout requirement for a recall. Article 128(4) fixes none. | Corrected within thirty days. The summary now states the threshold as operating on the votes in favour. |
| Article 23(1)(c) | The summary described the emissions budget as an annual figure. | Corrected. The summary now states it as a cumulative total remaining. |
| Article 245(4) | The summary listed seven of the eight conditions on electronic voting. | Corrected. The eighth condition is now stated. |
| Article 100(4) | Reported as unclear. The summary was found to match the text. | Answered with reasons. The underlying question is recorded in the coherence report as a contradiction between provisions. |
A correction is made within ninety days of a report, and each is published with the report that produced it.
The concept pages
The register also publishes explanations of concepts and a glossary. These stand on the same footing as the summary: drafted here, carrying no legal force, and subject to the same right to report a divergence.