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Constitutional Developments in Foreign Countries During 1908 and 19091

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

W. F. Dood
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Extract

Perhaps the two most important constitutional events during recent years are the establishment of the South African Union and the struggle in Great Britain over the budget and with reference to the powers of the House of Lords. Both of these events are excluded from treatment here—the South African Union is discussed somewhat fully in another part of this Review; the British constitutional struggle is still in progress, and cannot be satisfactorily treated at the present time.

However, with reference to the South African Union it may be well to call attention to the movement away from loosely-constructed federal states. In the United States the state governments have steadily tended to become of less importance as compared with the national government, but this change has necessarily been produced not so much by textual changes in the constitution as by judicial interpretation. By the German imperial constitution of 1871 a fairly centralized federal organization was established, and since 1873 when the federal legislative power was extended over the whole field of civil law there have been no important extensions of federal power by textual changes in the constitution; but here as in the United States the federal power has increased at the expense of the states in a manner not shown by changes in the written instrument of government. “The most important and most weighty interests of the nation are common to all and must be cared for in a uniform manner, and all branches of public law and political life stand in a close and indissoluble relation the one to the other, so that by the logic of facts particularism must give place to unity, the common will must to an ever increasing extent displace the separate wills of the individual states.”

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , August 1910 , pp. 325 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1910

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References

2 See an article by Porritt, Edward on Recent and Pending Constitutional Changes in England, in the May, 1910Google Scholar, number of this Review.

3 Laband, , Die geschichtliche Entwicklung der Reichsverfassung, Jahrbuch des œffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart, i, 5.Google Scholar See also Leacock, , The Limitations of Federal Government, Report of the American Political Science Association, 1908, p. 37Google Scholar; and Amidon, , The Nation and the Constitution, Report of the American Bar Association, 1907, p. 463.Google Scholar

4 For a summary of these amendments see this Review, iii, 571. Proposals were introduced into the Swiss National Council in December, 1908, for the adoption of an amendment extending federal jurisdiction over automobile traffic and aërial navigation. The Federal Council in a report of March 22, 1910, recommended that such an amendment be submitted to the people.

5 The Union of South Africa, 46–47. Keith, , Responsible Government in the Dominions, p. 173Google Scholar, says: It should, however, be noted that already in the Commonwealth of Australia the friction between the state governments and the Commonwealth is giving rise to expressions of the desire to abolish the states as such and to create a great unified government.

6 The movement in Russia may have had some effect in producing the Montenegrin Constitution of 1905, although reforms had been undertaken in this country before that date. There are now only a few small portions of territory in Europe where constitutions are not in force. In Monaco a constitutional movement recently began, and a commission was appointed in March, 1910, to draw up a constitution. See the Contemporary Review, April, 1910, p. 511.

7 Harper, Samuel N., The New Electoral Law for the Russian Duma (Chicago 1908).Google ScholarChasles, Pierre, Le Parlement Russe (Paris, 1909).Google Scholar

8 The text of the law of July 20, 1906, may be found in Dareste, , Constitutions Modernes, 3d. ed., ii, 204.Google Scholar See also Erich, , Ein Blick auf die neueste politische Gesetzgebung Finlands, Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart, ii, 431.Google Scholar

9 For a summary of the Austrian law see this Review, ii, 56. See also Ulbrich in Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, ii, 285.

10 Flandin, , Institutions politiques de l'Europe Contemporaine, iv, 440.Google Scholar Revue politique et parlementaire, vol. 63, p. 636. Constitutional amendments were adopted in Norway in 1908, one of which abolished the ceremony of coronation and another withdrew from the king control over the sessions of the Storthing after that body had been in session for two months. The king had not, however, exercised control over such sessions since 1836. Ibid., vol. 59, p. 624.

11 The Swedish amendments of 1909 also provided for a council of legislation which should advise the king with reference to his action upon all laws passed by the Riksdag. The texts of the revised Swedish constitution and Riksdagsordning may be found in Dareste, , Constitutions Modernes, 3d. ed., ii, 46–114.Google Scholar See also Flandin, iv, 330–333.

12 Flandin, iv, 216–228, 244. La vie politique dans les deux mondes, i, 237, ii, 233. Revue politique et parlementaire, vol. 58, pp. 411, 412. Questions diplomatiques et coloniales, vol. 27, p. 473.

13 Documents parlementaires, Chambre des députés, vol. 71, p. 890.

14 See Dicey, A. V., The Referendum and its Critics, Quarterly Review, April, 1910.Google Scholar

15 Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into electoral systems. (London, 1910, p. 63.)

16 The present age is twenty years.

17 Gabriel Louis-Jaray in Questions diplomatiques et coloniales, vol. 27, p. 227. See also Jaray's, M. valuable work, La Question sociale et le socialisme en Hongrie, and La vie politique dans les deux mondes, iii, 191.Google Scholar

18 See Braun, Pierre, Alsace-Lorraine. Les préludes d'une lutte nationale. Questions diplomatiques et coloniales, April 16, 1910.Google Scholar

19 The text of the constitution of Baden may be found in Dareste, i, 314. See also Walz, E., Die badische Verfassungsreform des Jahres 1904, Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts der Gegenwart, i, 317.Google Scholar

20 Dareste, i, 275. Göz, , Verfassungsrevision und Verwaltungsreform in Württemberg, Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, i, 255.Google ScholarFontaine, , La Représentation proportionelle en Wurtemberg (Paris, 1909).Google Scholar

21 Grassmann, , Die bayerische Landtagswahlgesetz vom 8. April, 1906. Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, i, 242.Google Scholar

22 Robert Piloty in Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, iii, 478.

23 Geert Seelig in Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, ii, 132.

24 Posener, , Staatsverfassungen des Erdballs, 306.Google Scholar

25 Posener, , Staatsverfassungen des Erdballs, 395.Google ScholarDeutsche Geschichtskalender, 1909, i, 230. Lestrade, Combes de, Les Monarchies de l'empire allemande, 184.Google Scholar

26 Posener, 451. In Schaumburg-Lippe a new election law was adopted in 1906, but it appears to have made no essential change in the representative system. New electoral proposals were submitted in Hesse-Darmstadt in 1909.

27 Lowell, , Governments and Parties in Continental Europe, i, 364.Google ScholarBrückner, , Bericht über die mecklenburgischen Verfassungsvorlagen, Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, iii, 493.Google Scholar

28 Lowell, I, 336. Combes de Lestrade, 176. Annual Register, 1909, pp. 307, 308. Revue politique et parlementaire, vol. 63, p. 206. Upon the whole subject of property qualifications for voting see a valuable article by Schmidt, Georg, Der Wahlzensus, in the Archiv für oeffentliches Rechts, (1910), pp. 193, 254.Google Scholar

29 London Times, Feb. 10, 1910.

30 The same statement is true as to representation in the German Reichstag, no apportionment having been made since the organization of the Empire. But in the Empire universal male suffrage prevails, and elections are both direct and secret.

31 The proposal resembles in many respects the Saxon threec-lass system of 1896.

32 Nézard, Henry, Le Suffrage politique en Prusse, Revue politique et parlementaire, vol. 56, p. 532.Google Scholar See also a review of recent German politics in the same journal, vol. 63, p. 204.

33 Egyptian governmental affairs may be conveniently followed in the annual reports for 1908 and 1909 made by the British agent and consul general on the finances, administration, and condition of Egypt and the Sudan.

34 The text of the constitution of 1876 may be found in French translation in the Revue du droit public et de la science politique, vol. 25, p. 532; the constitution as revised in 1909 is in Dareste, ii, 323. The movement in Turkey may be conveniently followed in the Annual Register and in the annual volumes of La vie politique dans les deux mondes. See also Knight, E. F., The Awakening of Turkey (London, 1909)Google Scholar, and an article by Edwin Pears in the Contemporary Review, June, 1910.

35 All of the documents referred to above may be found in English translation in Browne's, Edward G.Brief Narrative of Recent Events in Persia. (London, 1909).Google Scholar

36 Khan, Kitabgi, La Perse constitutionnelle, Revue politique et parlementaire, vol. 63, p. 347.Google Scholar Events in Persia from December 1906 to December 1909, may be followed in the British Blue Books, Persia, Nos. 1 and 2 (1909), and Persia, No. 1 (1910). The text of the new election law may be found in Persia, No. 1 (1910), p. 73.

37 The New Régime in China, Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, 1909, p. 123. As to the work of the first provincial assemblies see a very favorable account in the London Times, Jan. 20, p. 5.

38 North-China Herald, May 13, 1910, pp. 360, 395.

39 Indian Councils Act, 9 Edw. VII, ch. 4. A summary of this act may be found in this Review, iii, 552. For the situation in India see Nevinson's, Henry W.The New Spirit in India (London, 1908).Google Scholar

40 These regulations may be found summarized in the Annual Register for 1909, pp. 382–387.

41 For a review of the work of the governor-general's council see the London Times, April 18, 1910, p. 7. See also an interesting article by Ali, Ameer on The Constitutional Experiment in India, in the Nineteenth Century, March, 1910.Google Scholar

42 A full account of the annexation of the Congo may be found in an article by Errera, Paul, Le Congo belge, Revue du droit public et de la science politique, xxv, 730.Google Scholar The texts may be conveniently found in Dareste, i, 98–105, and in Errera, , Droit public belge, 773–783.Google Scholar

43 Dareste, ii, 26, has the constitutional law now in force in Iceland. See Morgenstierne, Bredo, Die dänish-isländische Staatsverbindung, Jahrbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts, iii, 520.Google Scholar

44 E. J. Dillon in Contemporary Review, May, 1910. Questions diplomatiques et coloniales, April 16, 1910. London Times, March 30, 1910. An interesting pronouncement by notable foreign jurists in favor of Finnish autonomy may be found in the London Times, March 2, 1910.

45 A full summary of this instrument may be found in the London Times, Feb. 23, 1910.

46 See an article entitled Greece and King George, in the Quarterly Review, April, 1910.

47 Summaries of the new constitution may be found in the Bulletin of the International Union of the American Republics, Sept. 1909, p. 648, and Dec. 1909, p. 1152.

48 See Attorney-General v. Brewery Employes' Union, 6 C. L. R. (1908), 469.

49 Unconstitutional Legislation, Commonwealth Law Review, iv, 201.

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