[Rezension zu] Annuaire de la législation du travail, III. Année 1899

Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen’s 1901 review of Annuaire de la législation du travail, III. Année 1899 assesses the Belgian labour office’s annual survey of worker protection and insurance. Its central judgment separates the publication’s reliability as a reference work from the stagnation its contents reveal: most states offer chiefly minor regulations.

The review moves from this general assessment to national examples. Germany’s invalidity-insurance law of 13 July 1899 receives particular attention: the yearbook supplies an extensive introduction explaining its history and changes to the 1889 law. Austria, by contrast, prompts an explicitly reformist complaint:

Oesterreich documentiert leider noch immer eine unselige Sterilität in seiner Gesetzgebung; hoffentlich wird sich bei uns bald ein frischer Zug fühlbar machen.

English translation: Austria unfortunately still attests to a lamentable sterility in its legislation; it is to be hoped that a fresh current will soon make itself felt among us.

This contrast makes legislative initiative, rather than documentary abundance alone, the measure of progress. Schullern closes by widening the geographical scope:

Ich erwähne noch das kais. russische Decret vom 7. Juni 1899, durch welches ein Industrie- und Bergwerksrath eingesetzt wurde und das interessante neuseeländische Gesetz vom 28. October 1899 über die Lohnzahlungen.

English translation: I mention further the imperial Russian decree of 7 June 1899, by which an industrial and mining council was established, and the interesting New Zealand law of 28 October 1899 on the payment of wages.

These brief notices identify further developments without elaborating their effects. The review’s significance lies in its use of an international reference work both to register labour legislation and to expose the limited momentum of reform.