INTERNATIONAL LABOUR LEGISLATION. NOTES AND REVIEWS. [Contributed by SIR LYNDEN MACASSEY, K.B.E., K.C.] Progress and Problems.-The annual report of M. Albert Thomas, Director of the International Labour Office, to the International Labour Conference (League of Nations) now in session in Geneva, gives an exhaustive survey of the work achieved by the organization in promoting universal social reform by the two-fold method laid down in the Peace Treaty-first, the securing of international agreements for translation into national legislation, and secondly, the collection and world-wide dissemination of information on labour conditions and movements. The report contains also an examination of some of the difficulties and problems which have been encountered in the effort to level up conditions of labour in backward countries, and to establish a world minimum standard of humane conditions for workers in factories, on the sea, and on the land. Not the least interesting part of a very substantial volume-the Report occupies over 300 pages, and is in French and English—is a series of tables showing the steps taken in the various countries to ratify or give effect to the Draft Conventions and Recommendations dealing with hours of work, employment of women, child labour, etc., adopted by the three Conferences held respectively at Washington (1919), Genoa (1920), and Geneva (1921). According to these tables, 51 formal ratifications of these Conventions have been registered (since the Report was prepared, this number has been raised by Japan to 53), 16 have been authorized by Parliaments, and 85 have been recommended to Parliaments. For the application of the Conventions and Recommendations, 172 legislative measures have been adopted by Parliaments, or are in progress. While the Report does not suggest that these results are all that might have been hoped for, and while it deals frankly with the obstacles to more immediate and extensive progress, it closes on a not unhopeful note. Success in the task set before the International Labour Organization, says M. Thomas, will obviously depend on a variety of considerations. "It will depend on the solidarity and the capabilities of the workers' organizations; on the valuable assistance forthcoming from employers fully alive to the importance of the service which may be rendered to industry by a sane legislation; and on the Governments' will to social progress. Success will also depend on the active vigilance, the tact and the prudence of the International Labour Office itself, and on the authority which it succeeds in acquiring in the eyes of Governments, the confidence which it inspires in them and the security which it affords them. But it will depend above all on the faith which must be maintained unextinguished in the hearth (sic) of all-faith in those 'fair and humane' principles which, in a never-tobe-forgotten hour, men of all classes and of all countries inserted, through their negotiators, in the texts of the Treaties of Peace. Success will depend on men's faith in justice." International Labour Laws of 1920.-There has just been published, by the International Labour Office of the League of Nations at Geneva, a volume entitled Legislative Series, vol. i, 1920, which contains in English a copy of all the laws, decrees, administrative orders, instructions, and other rules and regulations passed or made during 1920 and affecting, either directly or indirectly, labour in industry in countries, parties to the League of Nations. A similar volume is published in French, the other official language of the International Labour Organization. Each of the laws, decrees, etc., in the volume has been published separately some time ago, but has now been conveniently included in the volume for the year. It represents a monumental undertaking; the work of translation alone, which is most carefully and accurately done, is prodigious. In one book, opportunity is given to review, in a comparative form, practically the whole of the legislation affecting labour throughout the world. There is an admirable chronological index of the laws, decrees, etc., for each country; in addition there is an exhaustive subject index to the whole of their contents, so that under any subject, as, for example, "Accidents in Works," one is provided with a ready reference to the legislative and administrative provisions in respect of that subject in all the different countries. If a criticism might be offered, it would be that future volumes should be consecutively paged; it is inconvenient to have to look up the country alphabetically in order to find a particular statute among its numbered laws. As the volume is an assemblage of separate laws previously published, at different dates, they could not obviously, when first printed, be paged as for the finished volume. Still, there are several expedients for getting over that difficulty. But that is a minor matter; in its essentials, the volume reflects the highest credit upon the International Labour Office, and especially upon Miss Sophy Sanger, who, as Secretary to the British Section of the International Association for Labour Legislation, did such good work before the war at Berne, and is now continuing and expanding it under the wider sphere of the International Labour Office. Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration. Mr. Gilchrist, acting 2 — Controller of the Labour Bureau of the Government of India, has 1 Legislative Series, vol. i, 1920. • Conciliation and Arbitration, by R. N. Gilchrist, M.A., Indian Educational Service, acting Controller, Labour Bureau, Government of India; Bulletins of Indian Industries and Labour No. 23; Government Printing Office, Calcutta, Pp. 238. Rs. 1.12 written an eminently serviceable book on Conciliation and Arbitration in Industry. It presents concisely, and in a form of great value to the comparative lawyer, a survey of the methods, both those attempted and those in use in Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, the United States and the Continent of Europe, for dealing with industrial disputes. The author, wisely recognizing that it is impossible to analyse the whole field of modern legislation on this subject, has tried, and, with commendable results, succeeded in setting out the fundamental principles of legislation affecting the matter in the different countries, with full reference to the relevant Acts, and to the legal decisions, industrial movements, and other causes, which have led to the passing of those Acts. What is very valuable, he gives considerable information as to the varying circumstances in different countries, and of their effect in moulding the particular system of conciliation and arbitration instituted by law in each country, and in addition the factors which have affected the practical working out of the system. There have been many attempts in the past to deal with the important matter of conciliation and arbitration in industry, but most of the books descriptive of the systems in vogue in different countries are of little use to the student; they have been written with a bias which is obvious, or, if less apparent, one which, on inquiry, proves to have been responsible for a selective arrangement, perhaps involuntary, of facts which tended to support some preconceived theory of the author. There is no trace of anything of that sort in Mr. Gilchrist's most careful book. He has set out the material legislative provisions and analysed them, he has collated the salient facts and summarized them in an impartial and critical manner which cannot fail to impress the reader. So far as there has been opportunity to test the facts, and the writer of this notice has been able to do that from his own experience in a number of important instances, they are presented with accuracy and in balanced perspective. From the outset Mr. Gilchrist recognizes one circumstance that inevitably impresses itself upon the mind of any jurist inquiring into the administrative efficacy of industrial conciliation and arbitration— the methods of one country, however admirable at home, are seldom applicable in their entirety to the circumstances of another country. National temperament, racial genius, economic circumstances, topographical peculiarities, all have their effect. Even within the British Empire itself there are variant conceptions and marked divergences of law. Great Britain has up to the present-except during the war, when the attempt was a failure-set its face against every type of compulsory industrial arbitration under statute. "Australasia, on the other hand, has tried to reconcile all methods with a central theory of compulsion. The Canadian system, the popularity of which is rapidly growing," Mr. Gilchrist says, "represents a compromise between voluntary and compulsory methods. Among these methods, purely voluntary, semi-compulsory, and compulsory, there are many shades and grades. Each system has its advocates, and each system has its opponents. On the methods of industrial peace there is no agreement; on the necessity of industrial peace (except for a few dreamers and anti-social agitators) there is complete agreement." Australia was formerly used, especially South Australia, as a strong argument in favour of compulsory arbitration, but it no longer serves that purpose. Compulsory arbitration in Australia worked harmoniously so long as the great development of the country absorbed all available labour, and so long as the procedure resulted generally in the workers obtaining, if not all their demands, at any rate a substantial portion. Now, however, that the conditions of Australia, as a result of its greater development, and especially because of the abnormal economic circumstances created by the war, are approximating more closely to those of Great Britain, the compulsory arbitration system is very seriously disorganized and discredited. In fact, in South Australia there appears to be a definite attempt to abolish it which seems to have received considerable support from the Government. A careful perusal of Mr. Gilchrist's most interesting work shows conclusively, although that is no part of his thesis, that compulsory arbitration is incompatible with the idea of freedom so strongly imprinted in the Anglo-Saxon temperament. It is often overlooked by those who advocate legislation imposing compulsory arbitration, that if a right is to exist to compel workers to work for a rate of wages or under conditions of employment prescribed by an arbitration tribunal, the same right must exist to compel employers, on the other hand, as a necessary corollary, to run their works at a loss, which of course is an impracticable condition of affairs. The position is neatly summed up by Mr. Gilchrist when he says: Compulsion is possible only where it is desired by the common consciousness." To those who desire to tread under capable, critical and impartial direction through the mazes of legislation which in different countries has been passed in regard to conciliation and arbitration, this work of Mr. Gilchrist can be recommended with confidence. It is not without significance that the very extensive inquiry upon which it is based was inaugurated by the Government of India, and evidences the anxiety of that Government to deal with its own growing industrial problem on lines that have been explored by experience, subject of course to such adjustments—and they will be many-—as are necessary to give effect to Indian conditions. Labour Legislation in Great Britain, France and the Scandinavian Countries, 1900-1922.1-The work of the Annual International Labour Conference of the League of Nations in formulating conventions and principles of legislation on labour questions for adoption by countries 1 British and Continental Labour Policy, by B. G. de Montgomery. (London: George Routledge & Sons, Ltd., 1922. Pp. xxviii + 575. 21S.) parties to the League, as well as the fact that the Permanent Court of International Justice has already given its first decision on a labour matter, has brought into prominence, especially on the Continent of Europe, the urgent necessity for some textbook, or rather a series of textbooks, which deal comparatively with labour legislation in the different countries which are represented on the Conference. Mr. BoGabriel de Montgomery, a distinguished French publicist, has led the way and has produced a book quite invaluable to all interested, or professionally concerned, in international labour laws. In this book, entitled British and Continental Labour Policy, he has exhaustively examined the political labour movements and the provisions of labour legislation in Great Britain, France and the three Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The conjunction of the two subjects is sound-indeed, it is essential; without some knowledge of the political labour movements of a country it is impossible to appreciate, in proper perspective, the country's code of labour legislation. The combination of constitutional and legal history with explanation and interpretation of the laws, adopted in the book, is most helpful. A mere interpretation of a statute without any information as to the circumstances under which it was passed, gives little clue to national tendencies, and throws no light on the true inwardness of a national code. It is to be hoped that either Mr. Montgomery or other authors equally informed and expert, may in time deal with other countries on the same basis. It is mainly from the point of view of international law that this book will appeal most strongly to jurists: "To learn what the laws of a country are is not the work of a day even in pacific times, and of persons accustomed to legal inquiries," as Lord Stowell said in Ruding v. Smith. With some knowledge of the difficulties of the task it is permissible to congratulate Mr. Montgomery on having performed a difficult undertaking with conspicuous success. His book summarizes in comparative form the acts and orders and decrees that deal with the live industrial issues of the present time in the countries which he brings under review. He shows that he possesses a clear insight into fundamentals and is gifted with a faculty of getting away from words down to things essential; and he sets out clearly, with full reference to authorities and copious documentation, the general basic principles which underlie the various national enactments. In the scope of this short notice it is impossible to do adequate justice to this admirable book. Of its 529 pages about one-half deals with the political labour movements, and the other half with labour legislation. In the former section the writer gives a most interesting account of the emancipation of the trade unions from repressive legislation in Great Britain, France and the Scandinavian countries, and of their legal capacity in regard to parliamentary action. The author's criticisms on the Taff Vale decision and the Osborne case are fresh and penetrating. A wealth of material |