An Index of Comparative Legislation

For several years the plan of publishing an annual index or summary of foreign legislation has been under discussion among American students of political science. The Librarian of Congress has recommended that such a publication be undertaken by the United States Government, and it seems possible that his efforts in this direction may finally be successful. Information concerning foreign legislation is now difficult to obtain, and the usefulness of a publication that would make more easily available the substance of current foreign laws is well recognized.The demand for information of foreign legislation may be said to come from three sources: (1) From practicing lawyers who handle cases involving the laws of other countries. The increasing American investments abroad and the closer social relations which have developed between the United States and foreign countries make it necessary that our lawyers should know something of the legal institutions of other nations. In our great seaboard cities lawyers have already begun to devote themselves to foreign law as a specialty, and important legal firms find it necessary to have foreign connections. (2) Our legislators are beginning to look more closely into the experiences of other countries. Statesmen are coming to see that one country may well prove a laboratory for others in the field of social legislation, and to wish to profit by foreign successes and to avoid foreign failures. Germany has gone very far in the matter of governmental insurance and in legislation for the protection of labor, and it is within these fields that we may expect future legislation in the United States.