No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Need for an International Legislative Drafting Bureau
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2017
Extract
The next few years are likely to be of critical importance in the development of the technique of international legislation by means of multipartite agreements. The interruption of the normal rhythm of international legislative activity by the war, the need to revise a substantial proportion of the principal existing multipartite legislative instruments in the light of the new conditions precipitated by the war, and the wide range of problems not dealt with in such instruments hitherto which have now been thrust into the foreground, will combine to produce an intensification of international legislative activity comparable to that of the years immediately following the first world war. The first steps are already being taken by the formulation of plans for a wide range of new international organisations, and when the necessary constituent instruments have been framed the whole of the existing corpus of international legislation is likely to be progressively reconsidered over a period of years.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Society of International Law 1945
References
1 For explanation of this term see Sir Courtney Ilbert, Legislative Methods etc.,cited below, p. 174, note 4, at pp. 77-85. For a similar service in the United States see Lee, Frederic P., “The Office of the Legislative Counsel,” in Columbia Law Review,Vol. XXIX, No. 4 (April, 1929), p. 379.Google Scholar
2 19 Iowa Law Review(1934), p. 178.
3 See David Hunter Miller, Reservations on Treaties,1919; Malkin, H. W., “Reservations to Multilateral Treaties” in British Yearbook of International Law,Vol. VII (1926), pp. 141- 162Google Scholar; Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law, Report on the Admissibility of Reservations to General Conventions, in League of Nations Official Journal,1927, p. 880; L. A. Podesta-Costa, Les reserves dans les traités internationaux,in Revue de droit international,Tome XXI (1938), pp. 1-52; William Sanders, “Reservations to Multilateral Treaties Made in the Act of Ratification or Adherence,” in this Journal, Vol. 33 (1939), pp. 488-499.
4 The draftsmen of international instruments will find the following to be specially helpful: Lord Thring, Practical Legislation,1902 (2nd ed.); Sir Courtenay Ilbert, Legislative Methods and Forms,1901, and The Mechanics of Law Making,1914; Sir Alison Russell, Legislative Drafting and Forms,1938 (4th ed.); Ernst Freund, Legislative Regvlation,1932; H. Nabbé, La préparation des lois,1901; R. von Mohl, “Die Abfassung der Rechtsgesetze,”in Staatsrecht, Voelkerrecht und Politik,1862, Vol. II, pp. 375-633; American Bar Association, Special Committee on Legislative Drafting, Bill Drafting and Legislative Reference Bureaux—Report of the Special Committee on Legislative Drafting,1913, Report of the Special Committee on Legislative Drafting to be presented at the meeting of the American Bar Association, October 20-22, 1914;also The Conference of Commissioners on Uniformity of Legislation in Canada, Rules of Drafting together with Observations and Suggestions on the Drafting of Legislation adopted by the Conference.Reference may also be made to Jeremy Bentham, The Theory of Legislation,1831; Arthur Symonds, The Mechanics of Law Making,1835; George Coode, On Legislative Expression,1848; Ashton R. Willard, A Legislative Handbook,1890; William Fulden Craies, A Treatise on Statute Laws,1936 (4th ed.); Ernst Freund, Legislative Drafting,Address delivered at the First Annual Meeting of the Bill Drafting Conference, Chicago, Illinois, August 29,1926; Chester Lloyd Jones, Statute Law Making in the United States,1912; Gustavus Adolphus Weber, Organized Efforts for the Improvement of Methods of Administration in the United States,1919; Thos. Ignatius Parlminson, Cases and Materials on Legislation,1936; Duke University, Legislation in North Carolina: a legislative handbook prepared by the Department of Legislative Research and Drafting, School of Law, Duke University,1932; Statute Law Making in Iowa,being Vol. III of Applied History,published by the State Historical Society of Iowa, 1916; Indiana Bureau of Legislative Information, Legislative BiU Drafting,1914; Sveinbjorn, Johnson, “Statute Law Making with Suggestions to Draftsmen,” in Quarterly Journal of the University of North Dakota,Vol. V, No. 2 (Jan. 1915), pp. 93-119Google Scholar; Ernest Briencken, Hints on Drawing Legislative Bills,1908; J. H. Leek, Legislative Reference Work, A Comparative Study,1925; Joseph Perkins Chamberlain, Legislative Processes: National and State,New York, 1936; Robert Luce, Legislative Procedure,1922, Legislative Assemblies,1924, Legislative Principles,1930, and Legislative Problems,1935.
5 English-French and French-English glossaries of translations used in the texts of international labor Conventions have been part of the office equipment of the Legal Advisers of the International Labor Conference for some years, but something with a much wider range of both subject matter and languages is required. Mr. Raoul Aglion, Legal Adviser of the French Embassy in Washington, 's about to publish a Dictionnaire de Termes Juridiques Anglo-Americains et François (Droit privé et Droit public)which should be invaluable to the draftsman of multipartite instruments. An appropriate international equivalent for Words and Phrases,West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1940, 45 vols., with cumulative annual pocket parts, and Words and Phrases Judicially Defined,under the general editorship of Roland Burrows, K.C., Butterworth, London, 1943, 5 vols., will, however, also be necessary.