The Movement for Reform of International Judicial Procedure

Prior to World War II, much of the world, excepting the United States, was interlaced by a network of treaties and conventions which codified the practice and procedure of civil, commercial and, to a limited extent, criminal judicial assistance. A short history of the development of this international legislation, as developed by the Commission's staff, will provide a background for examination of the program of the Commission.

A. Civil Law Agreements

A movement for reform of international procedures aro se in Latin America and Europe during the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century. At the First South-American Congress on Private International Law held by the Latin-American states at Montevideo in 1889, a convention on procedural law was signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The First Hague Conference on Private International Law met in 1893. In 1904 the Fourth Conference on Private International Law at The Hague produced an agreement which replaced one adopted at the Second Conference in 1896. It became the Hague Convention on Civil Procedure of July 17, 1905, and bound Austria, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. After a protocol concluded in 1924, Danzig, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia adhered to the Convention. The Convention contains provisions, applicable in civil and commercial matters, for extraterritorial service of documents; the examination of witnesses and the performance of "other judicial acts" by foreign courts when requested by letters rogatory; for non-discriminatory treatment of nationals of the signatory states with respect to security for costs and damages, legal aid for the indigent, and imprisonment for indebtedness.

The Assembly of the League of Nations in 1924 requested the Council to name a committee of experts to consider those subjects of international law whose regulation "by international agreement would seem to be most desirable and realisable . . .". This Committee of Experts for the Progressive Codification of International Law chose as one title the "Communication of Judicial and Extra-Judicial Acts in Penal Matters and Letters Rogatory in Penal Matters." In 1927 a subcommittee, headed by Professor Schucking of the University of Kiel, Germany, issued a report, which was forwarded to the various governments along with a draft convention and a questionnaire asking

whether it was possible "to establish by means of general convention provisions concerning the communication of judicial and extra-judicial acts in penal matters and letters rogatory in penal matters." Eighteen governments replied affirmatively that codification was desirable and Six governments replied in the negative. One was the The other five Great Britain and other members of the British Commonwealth answered in the negative, but only because they preferred bilateral agreements to a multipartite convention.

realizable.

United States.

At Havana in 1928 the Sixth International Conference of American States adopted the Bustamante Code of Private International Law with provisions relating to judicial assistance. This Code has been ratified by fifteen states: Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela.

After a lapse of fifty years since the First Congress, a Second South-American Congress on Private International Law was held in Montevideo in 1940. A Convention on International Procedural Law was signed by seven states.

At the May 1950 meeting of the Inter-American Council of Jurists in Rio de Janeiro, the topic of "International Cooperation in Judicial Procedures" was referred for exploration to its permanent working organization, the Inter-American Juridical Committee, which has its permanent seat in that city.

In October 1951 the Seventh Conference on Private International Law was held at The Hague. It adopted for submission to the member governments a draft convention on civil procedure which is a revision of the 1905 convention with "improvements suggested by experience."

In September 1952 The Inter-American Council of Jurists issued its first report "On Uniformity of Legislation on International Cooperation in Judicial Procedures." The report is an informative study of comparative common law and civil law procedures and contains, for the examination and criticism of the members of the Organization of American States, eight suggested "rules of law" to resolve problems in judicial assistance between civil law and common law countries.

B. Experience in the British Commonwealth

The states of the common law jurisdictions did not adhere to The Hague Convention of 1905 on Civil Procedure, and they did not approve a proposal for a convention on international assistance in penal