The will of the people shall be the law of the land. Constitutions, statutes, and ... government are but instruments to carry out the will of the people, and when they fail ... they must be changed to carry out and express the ... will of the people. For over all and above all, and greater than all, and expressing the supreme sovereignty of all, are the people.

No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time.

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Liberty Tree is committed to raising up and renewing a crucial area of the law: the law of democracy. Read here for resources on new approaches to making the law more accessible, transparent, and above all, directly accountable to the people.

Initiatives

• Direct Legislation Resources
  Articles, links to organizations, and resources on citizen efforts to directly make policy decisions.

Events

• Midwest NLG Conference (February 29, 2008 - March 1, 2008)
  Liberty Tree convenes two panels at the regional Midwest meeting of the National Lawyers Guild.
• Democracy Track at the U.S. Social Forum (June 27, 2007 - July 1, 2007)
  The Democracy Track is a series of sessions and community spaces at the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, Georgia, June 27-July 1, 2007. The purpose of these sessions is to centralize democracy in all of our everyday struggles.

Publications/Talks

• Prospects for Participatory Democracy in the U.S.
  "The task . . . is to facilitate the growth of an aggressive democracy movement in the United States."
• Understanding Student Unionism: A Canadian Perspective
  Canadian lessons for U.S. organizers of student unions.
• Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations
  Corporatization: An Internal Clash of Civilizations by Ben Manski and John Peck Published in "Beyond the Market: The Future of Public Services"
• Voter Bill of Rights
  The full text of the Voter Bill of Rights.
• Wisconsin votes for immediate withdrawal!
  Ballot resolutions put a state on the map as opposed to the occupation of Iraq
• ACS Paper: Preserving and Expanding the Right to Vote: Ranked-choice Voting
  In this American Constitution Society white paper, Liberty Tree Fellows Patrick Barrett and David Cobb join Caleb Kleppner of Election Solutions in making the case for ranked-choice voting.

Democracy News

• Updating the Electoral College: The National Popular Vote Legislation (June 5, 2007)

Urgent Action

• Sensenbrenner law threatens basic human rights (SpeakOut! - Institute for Democratic Education)
• Stop government surveillance of student activists (http://www.StandUpfortheLaw.org)