Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Annuaire de la législation du travail (1900)

Schullern’s brief review assesses the Belgian Office of Labour’s second international legislative yearbook, covering 1898. He welcomes its punctual publication, continuity of organization, and comprehensiveness, then surveys its contents before raising a precise objection to its selection criteria.

Bezeichnend ist es, dass auch Deutschland nur mit Verordnungen vertreten ist.

English translation: It is characteristic that Germany too is represented only by ordinances.

This observation follows his account of Austrian regulations on work breaks, young people’s night work in bakeries, and the establishment of a labour office. His subsequent examples shift attention to legislation elsewhere: occupational associations in Belgium, accident insurance and liability in Denmark, France, Italy, and the United States, and Italian provision for invalidity and old age. The review thus provides a compact comparative map of labour legislation without developing a broader explanation of national differences.

Auch das Gesetz über die Schaffung eines amerikanischen Industrie- und Landwirtschaftsrathes ist hervorzuheben; dabei wäre aber zu bemerken, dass das Statut des österreichischen Industrie- und Landwirtschaftsrathes vom 6. Juni 1898 wohl auch hätte aufgenommen werden müssen, wenn — was vielleicht nicht gerade nothwendig war — das eben genannte amerikanische Gesetz Platz gefunden hat.

English translation: The law on the creation of an American Council of Industry and Agriculture is also to be singled out; but it should be remarked in this connection that the statute of the Austrian Council of Industry and Agriculture of 6 June 1898 would surely also have had to be included, if — which was perhaps not exactly necessary — the American law just mentioned found a place.

The closing qualification makes consistent coverage the decisive editorial standard: including the American council warrants inclusion of its Austrian counterpart. Schullern’s praise of the yearbook’s documentary usefulness therefore remains attentive to the boundaries and symmetry of international comparison.