George W. Kirchwey and James Wilford Garner

“ Bentham, however, using the term in a wider sense, includes both legal fiction and equity under the head of legislation, on the ground that all three processes involve the making of new law, the difference being only one of method. The term is more commonly employed in the special sense of the enactment or amendment of law by the direct action of the sovereign, or of a special organ of the State to which the legislative power is committed. ”

“ In such a society the deficiencies of customary law were often supplied by commands issued by the King or chief, sometimes with the assent of his warriors or nobles. In some communities this power became vested in a special class of learned persons, as, for example, the Druids in Britain and the Brehons in Ireland. The disinclination to innovate upon the customary law, however, and the comparatively few legislative needs of a primitive society made the enactment of new law a rare occurrence. ”

“ According to the first method, which prevails everywhere in Europe, except in Switzerland and Germany, and even to a limited extent in Germany, the great mass of legislation is formulated and initiated by responsible ministers who have seats in the Legislature and may at the same time be members of that body. ”

“ This is the method in vogue in the Congress of the United States, and in the legislatures of the several States. (See United States, section on Government.) Here the chief agencies for expediting legislation are the committees, which play only a subordinate part in the European systems. Apart from this divergence in the method of initiating and expediting the enactment of public measures, there is a substantial consensus among the leading nations of the world as to the general principles of legislative organization and procedure. ”

“ Whether members or not, the ministers take part in the debates advocating the adoption of the public measures which they wish to have enacted into law, defending them from the attacks of the opposition and finally resigning when defeated upon any important measure. ”