The following materials on the status of legality and non-retroactivity provisions come from the Documented Outline prepared by the Secretariat for the Commission on Human Rights Drafting Committee for the International Bill of Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/AC.1/3/Add.1, pp. 215–34 (2 June 1947) (sources for Articles 25 and 26) and the first [UN] year book on human rights 1946 [hereinafter 1946 UNYBHR], which was designed to “‘include all declarations and bills on human rights now in force in the various countries.’” The Documented Outline included constitutional provisions of UN member states. The 1946 UNYBHR included constitutional provisions of UN member states; where no human rights provisions existed in the relevant constitutions, it sometimes included statutory provisions and in some cases materials from experts describing the law of the jurisdiction; there were also provisions from non–member states.

This material represents a good snapshot of the constitutional law of legality as of 1946, and a very incomplete view of statutory and other law. The UN member constitutions represent material that was available to the drafters of the UDHR as well as those involved in the early stages of drafting the ICCPR. The other material in the 1946 UNYBHR would have been available by 1948, though it is less easy to say how much of it was actually used by the delegates who participated in drafting the UDHR and the later ICCPR.

The material excerpted here only concerns issues of legality in criminal law.