The History of the Institute: Part I
1895-1915
The earlier of the two societies involved in the eventual setting up of the British Institute was The Society of Comparative Legislation. The circumstances of its founding were very impressive. A meeting was held at the Imperial Institute in 1894 under the chairmanship of the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Herschell; its purpose was, "To consider the best means of furthering the study of Comparative Legislation, as suggested in a paper lately read at the Institute by Sir Courtenay Ilbert, KCSI". Sir Courtenay Ilbert (1841-1924) was a very distinguished lawyer who had been Law Member of the Viceroy of India's Council; on returning to England he had been appointed Assistant Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury (and later Head of that Department), finally serving as Clerk to the House of Commons.
The substance of Courtenay Ilbert's suggestion may be gathered from Volume I (1896-97) of the Journal of Comparative Legislation which, under the heading "Statement of the Objects of the Society", cited a motion moved by the Lord Chancellor, calling for the establishment of "A Society of Comparative Legislation, with the object of promoting knowledge of the course of legislation in different countries, more particularly in the several parts of Her Majesty's Dominions and in the United States". The "Statement" continued by pointing out that societies of this kind already could be found in France, Germany and America, and that, in striking contrast, no modern book existed with adequate treatment on the systems of law in force in the British Empire. It concluded by stating its aim of enlisting the aid of "Governors, Chief Justices and Judges of our colonies, Chambers of Commerce throughout the Empire, of the Inns of Court and Incorporated Law Societies, of the Universities, of the Diplomatic and Consular Services, of the Bar Associations and Statute Revision Commissions of the United States". Finally, it promised availability of the information obtained to members of the Society for a modest fee of one guinea (or of ten guineas for life membership).
The resulting survey in Volume I of the Journal of Comparative Legislation extended to more than four hundred pages and was the work of many contributors, outstandingly of Courtenay Ilbert himself. Even in its first year it was not limited to the British Empire and United States, as it included an article on the new German Civil Code, which was to come into effect in 1900, nor in later years did the Society's emphasis on legislation exclude comment on court decisions. Indeed, Lord Denning, who had been chairman of the Executive Committee of the Society of Legislation from 1951, said, when in 1965 he was contributing a Foreword to the Annual Survey of Commonwealth Law published under the joint auspices of the British Institute and the Faculty of Law of the University of Oxford, that it would be valuable to compare specific House of Lords decisions with those taking a contrary view in the Commonwealth, "... so that it [i.e. the common law] continues to be one whole and not split into fragments".
The survey continued to appear year by year until in 1950 in Volume XXXIII (Parts III and IV) of its Journal it was stated that the cost of publishing the "Review of Legislation" "had become the least justifiable drain on the Society's resources" and that in future "the "Society" must inevitably depend very largely for its pages of Notes on unsolicited research sent in from outside".
To avoid confusion arising from the nomenclature it should be added that in 1947 there first appeared the International Law Quarterly, edited by Professor G.C. Cheshire and Dr. Colombos, with a Foreword by Sir Cecil Hurst GCMG, President of the Grotius Society and former President of the Permanent Court of International Justice. Although a number of members of the Executive Committee of the new Quarterly were also closely connected with the Grotius Society, the Quarterly did not appear as a journal of the Grotius Society. In any event, in 1952 there first appeared the International and Comparative Law Quarterly with a Foreword by the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Society of Comparative Legislation who was then Lord Justice Denning. In the Foreword Lord Justice Denning referred to the British Commonwealth as "the great exemplar for most of our problems to which the Journal [of Legislation] has throughout the years devoted so much thought and study". He said that the new Quarterly, published by the Society of Comparative Legislation "as its Journal", will try to give "a due place" in its pages to international law, to the conflict of laws, and to comparative law, but "will seek explicitly to be a focus for Commonwealth legal studies".
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