Legal > Committee for the study of the legal status of women

[Communicated to the Council,
the Members of the League
and other Governments.]
Official No.: C^* 59o 2'1» 1939. V.
[C.S.F.25(1).]
Geneva, January 23rd, 1939.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF THE LEGAL STATUS OF WOMEN
REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF THE ENQUIRY
(adopted on January 10th, 1939)
At the close of its second session, the Committee feels it convenient that it should report to
the Council on the progress of its work.1
Origin and Method of the Enquiry.
In September 1937, the Assembly decided that the League should publish a comprehensive
survey of “ the legal status enjoyed by women in the various countries of the world as the
result of the provisions of national law and the application of those provisions ’ (resolution
of September 30th, 1937). The compilation of the survey was to be carried out by “ the
competent scientific institutes ”. The Assembly itself requested the International Institute
for the Unification of Private Law at Rome to undertake the part of the survey which relates
to civil law. For public law and criminal law, it was suggested that recourse should be had
to the International Institute of Public Law at Paris and the International Bureau for the
Unification of Penal Law. It was contemplated that other appropriate scientific bodies
might also take part in the work.
The Assembly’s resolution directed that the task of determining the scope of the survey,
arranging for its compilation and approving the results for publication should be entrusted
to a small expert committee set up by the Council. The present Committee was appointed
for the purpose by the Council on January 28th, 1938.2
The Assembly contemplated that the Committee would obtain the co-operation of the
women’s international organisations. It was owing to the ellorts of these organisations that
the League was led to discuss the status of women, and they had already placed a mass of
information on the subject before the Assembly.
Scope of the Survey.
The Assembly has refrained from fixing any limits for the survey and has left it to the
Committee to make it as “ comprehensive ” as possible.3 This fundamental question of the
scope of the survey can only receive a complete solution as experience of the progress of the
work shows what is actually practicable. It need hardly be said that the Assembly cannot
have contemplated an encyclopaedic statement of all the points of difference between the
legal status of men and women throughout the world. A work of such a character, which
would involve a detailed analysis of the civil, constitutional and administrative, and criminal
law of every country, would take a very long time to produce and fill a very large number of
volumes.
1 An account of the circumstances in which the League decided to make the enquiry which has been entrusted
to the Committee and of the proceedings at its first session is given on pages 178-181 of the Report on the Work of
the League, 1937/38, Part I (document A.6.1938 : General 1938/4).
a The Committee consists of the following members : Professor H. C. Gutteridge, K.C. (United Kingdom),
Professor of Comparative Law in the University of Cambridge (Chairman); Mme. Paul Bastid (France), Professor in the
Faculty of Law of the University of Lyons ; M. de Ruelle (Belgium), Legal Adviser of the Belgian Ministry for Foreign
Affairs, member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Mme. Anka Godjevac (Yugoslavia), Doctor of Law, Technical
Adviser of the Yugoslav Delegation at the Codification Conference (1930); Mile. Kerstin Hesselgren (Sweden),Member
of the Second Chamber of the Riksdag, Rapporteur on the Status of Women to the First Committee of the Assembly
(1937); Miss Dorothy Kenyon (United States of America), Doctor of Law; M. Paul Sebesty^n (Flungary), Counsellor
of Section, Chief of the International Treaties Section at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
8 The Assembly’s resolution excluded detailed treatment of questions of nationality and “ the question of conditions
of employment ”, which, by its resolution of September 27th, 1935, the Assembly had recognised to fall within the
sphere of the International Labour Organisation. The International Labour Office has already published on the latter
subject a very complete and interesting study entitled “ Le Statut 16gal des Travailleuses ” (Etudes et Documents, S6rie I
(Travail des femmes et des enfants), No. 4). The English edition of this book will appear shortly under the title :
“ The Law and Women’s Work : A Contribution to the Study of the Status of Women ”. The Committee has had
the assistance of a representative of the Labour Office in discussing the delimitation of its sphere from that of the Office.
Series of League of Nations Publications
3981. — S. d.N. 905 (F.) 925 (A.) 1/39. Imp. Granchamp, Annemasse.
V. LEGAL
1939. V. 1.