Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law

Sir W. R. Anson, Bart., Warden of All Souls' College, Oxford; Lord Ashbourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland; H.E. the Baron de Courcel, formerly Ambassador of France; Thomas Barclay, Esq.; H. C. Beeton, Esq., Agent-General for British Columbia; the Hon. E. Blake, Q.C., M.P.; Sir J. Bramston, K.C.M.G., C.B., formerly Assistant Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office; The Rt. Hon. James Bryce, M.P.; Lord Carrington, G.C.M.G., formerly Governor of New South Wales; the Hon. Sir J. W. Carrington, K.B., Chief Justice Supreme Court of Hongkong; M. D. Chalmers, Esq., Assistant Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury; Arthur Cohen, Esq., Q.C.; Viscount Cross, G.C.B.; Lord Davey, Lord of Appeal; the Earl of Derby, G.C.B., formerly Governor-General of Canada; Professor Dicey, Q.C., Vinerian Professor of English Law, Oxford; the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, formerly British Ambassador, Paris; Lord Farrer; Sir Edward Fry, formerly Lord Justice of Appeal; Sir James Garrick, K.C.M.G., formerly Agent-General for Queensland; the Hon. Duncan Gillies, formerly AgentGeneral for Victoria; C. J. Follett, Esq., C.B., Solicitor to the Commissioners of Customs; Lord Halsbury, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain; Sir Robert Herbert, G.C.B., formerly Agent-General for Tasmania; Lord Hobhouse, K.C.S.I.; Professor T. E. Holland, Professor of International Law, Oxford; Sir Courtenay Ilbert, K.C.S.I., Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury; Lord James of Hereford; Professor Jenks, Reader in English Law, University of Oxford; Sir Henry Jenkyns, K.C.B., formerly Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury; Dr. Courtney Kenny; Lord Knutsford, G.C.M.G.; the Hon. Chandos Leigh, Q.C., C.B., Counsel to the Speaker;

the Right Hon. Sir Nathaniel Lindley, Master of the Rolls; Lord Lingen, K.C.B.; the Marquess of Lorne, G.C.M.G., formerly Governor-General of Canada; John Macdonell, Esq., C.B., LL.D., Master of the Supreme Court; Sir K. Muir Mackenzie, Q.C., K.C.B., Permanent Secretary to the Lord Chancellor; Professor Maitland, LL.D., Downing Professor of Law, Cambridge; the Earl of Morley, Chairman of Committees, House of Lords; Sir Francis Mowatt, K.C.B., Permanent Secretary to the Treasury; Viscount Peel, formerly Speaker of the House of Commons; Sir Westby Perceval, K.C.M.G., Agent-General for Tasmania; T. D. Pigott, Esq., C.B., Controller of the Stationery Office; Sir Frederick Pollock, Bart., Professor of Jurisprudence, Oxford; T. Raleigh, Esq., Legal Member of the Council of the Viceroy of India; Lord Reay, G.C.S.I., formerly Under Secretary of State for India; the Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes, formerly Prime Minister of Cape Colony; the Lord Chief Justice of England (Lord Russell of Killowen); Professor Henry Sidgwick, Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge; Whitley Stokes, Esq., C.S.I., formerly Legal Member of Council, India; Lord Thring, K.C.B., formerly Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury; Sir Charles Tupper, Bart., G.C.M.G., formerly High Commissioner for Canada; Lord Watson, Lord of Appeal; Lord Welby, G.C.B.; Sir Raymond West, K.C.I.E.; Professor Westlake, Q.C., Professor of International Law, Cambridge; E. H. Whittuck, Esq.; Sir Arthur Wilson, K.C.I.E., Legal Adviser to the India Office; Mr. Justice Wright; Sir Henry Wrixon, K.C.M.G.

EDWARD MANSON, ESQ., 8, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.

PREFACE.

THIS number is the first of a new series of the JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LEGISLATION.

The Journal will be published by Mr. John Murray, of Albemarle Street, and will, it is hoped, appear at regular intervals.

It may be opportune to call attention to the following statement, which was published when the Society was founded:

"The objects of this Society are both practical and scientific. The Society is intended to be of service to legislative bodies, practising lawyers, jurists, and students of sociology.

"To jurisprudence the Society will apply the comparative method of investigation, which has already proved fruitful. It will gather together, epitomise, and arrange materials now scattered through many periodicals, or to be found only in official documents of which few libraries contain copies, and it will otherwise endeavour to promote the study of comparative law. Chief among its aims will be the collecting of information as to the statute law and the forms and methods of legislation in the British Empire and the United States.

"In France, Germany, and America similar associations exist; and it has long been matter of surprise that no such society has been formed in the British Empire, with its great variety of legal systems. In India, where English, Hindoo, and Mahommedan law coexist, and have affected each other, and where ancient customs of interest to the legal historian are still observed, and in our colonies, dependencies, and possessions, in which French, Roman-Dutch, and Spanish law subsist, will be found a vast field for the work of a Society of Comparative Legislation. In extent and variety the jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, as a Court of Appeal, is unequalled. In a single year it may be called upon to consider questions of constitutional law of moment to all civilised countries, cases dependent on Hindoo or Mahommedan law, on texts of the Digest, on the Ordonnances of Louis XIV., on the Coutume de Paris, or other portions of the old customary law of France before the Revolution, or on

the ancient customs of Normandy. It is somewhat remarkable that there should not have long ago been founded a society for the scientific study and comparison of the very diverse laws brought before the Appellate Court of the colonies and possessions of the British Empire.

"Benefits, direct and indirect, from the labours of the Society may be counted upon.

"In the British Empire are some sixty legislatures; in the United States are nearly fifty. Each of them is occupied with much the same problems. The same questions as to criminal law and the administration of justice, capital and labour, marriage and divorce, patents and literary property, the regulation of the sale of intoxicating liquors, education, railways, companies, bankruptcy, merchant shipping, and mercantile law generally, come from time to time before the British and Colonial Parliaments and the legislatures of the states of the American Union. Experiments as to similar subjects are being made by more than a hundred legislatures in Englishspeaking countries.

"It is not uncommon, on the introduction of measures into Parliament, to refer to the laws of other countries. At present the results of foreign experiments are only imperfectly and casually brought to the notice of those who might profit by them; and enactments may be proposed and adopted in one English-speaking community in ignorance of the fact that similar measures have after trial been abandoned or modified in another. Much, it is conceived, might be learned with advantage both as to the substance and as to the form of legislation, and many mistakes might be avoided, if precedents derived from the experience of other countries were collected and studied. In the future changes in criminal law, for example, it would be advantageous to have some acquaintance with the provisions of the criminal codes passed after careful discussion in Germany, Holland, Italy, and Hungary. Impressed by the advantage of ascertaining systematically the course of foreign legislation, the late M. Dufaure established, in connection with the French Ministry of Justice, the Comité de Législation Etrangère, the duty of which was to collect and arrange information as to foreign laws. M. Dufaure's action has, it is believed, been justified by the results. It is hoped that the Society of Comparative Legislation may render services of a similar kind, and may be the means of enabling governments and legislatures to profit by useful precedents.

"English-speaking races show a tendency towards unity in law. Our colonies borrow the principle and form of many statutes from England. The United Kingdom also borrows from the colonies. Among the colonies themselves there is a like movement, and the same interchange goes on between the United Kingdom and her colonies and the United States. No fewer than thirty-six states of the American Union, it is alleged, have adopted the Australian ballot system. The Torrens system of land transfer, which had its origin in South Australia, and the provisions of which were to some

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Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, Объемы 1-2