[Rezension zu Annuaire de la législation du travail, 1re année 1897]

Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Annuaire de la législation du travail (1899)

Schullern’s German review assesses the Belgian Labour Office’s first annual survey of labour legislation, covering 1897 and published in 1898. He values its French translations of legislative texts, supplemented by accounts of parliamentary deliberations and preparatory inquiries, as an aid to following international developments in worker protection.

His central methodological judgment concerns the selection of regulations:

Es ist vollkommen berechtigt, dass aus den Verordnungen nur die wichtigsten ausgewählt worden sind, die Sammlung wäre ja sonst zu ungeheuern Dimensionen angeschwollen, ohne dadurch wesentlich an Interesse für den internationalen Leserkreis zu gewinnen.

English translation: It is entirely justified that only the most important of the ordinances have been selected; the collection would otherwise have swollen to enormous dimensions without thereby gaining substantially in interest for the international circle of readers.

For Schullern, documentary usefulness does not require exhaustive inclusion. Selection keeps the survey manageable and directs attention toward material relevant beyond national boundaries.

Austria provides a critical test of this international perspective. Schullern treats its sparse representation as evidence of stagnation in social and economic legislation. Alongside the amendment to the industrial code, he notes the limited regulatory additions:

Ueberdies finden wir noch ein paar Verordnungen in Betreff der Arbeitspausen und der Sonntagsruhe.

English translation: Moreover we find a few further ordinances with respect to breaks in work and to Sunday rest.

The review thus connects appreciation of an international documentary resource with criticism of domestic legislative inactivity. Its concluding endorsement rests on the difficulty of keeping abreast of foreign legislation without a collection reproducing the laws themselves. The yearbook’s value lies both in making legal developments accessible and in enabling comparisons that expose uneven national progress.