Cecil Plan 1919

2009-11-15T23:09:11Z

Plan of Lord Robert Cecil of 14 January 1919

Reference: David Hunter Miller, The Drafting of the Covenant 2 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1928), 61-4.

Comment: This plan of Lord Robert Cecil, British delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, was one of the drafts for the Covenant of the League of Nations. The document of 14 January 1919 provided for the possibility of setting up "a periodical congress of delegates of the Parliaments of the States belonging to the League, as a development out of the existing Inter-Parliamentary Union." The IPU reference in this still informal draft, however, was not carried over into the subsequent official proposals of the British government.

American World Parliament proposal 1905

2009-11-15T23:06:33Z

Formal proposal of the American IPU Group to study the question of setting up a world parliament of 1905

Reference: Lange, Christian L., Union interparlementaire: Résolutions des Conférences et Décisions principales du Conseil, 2^nd ed. (Brussels: Misch & Thron, 1911), 93-4.

Comment: This formal proposal of the American IPU Group of 1905, informally uttered already in 1904, was debated by a study commission set up for that purpose. Yet, the quarrel over the question of timing, the confusion over a clear distinction between governmental and parliamentary tasks and organs at the international level, and the contended question of whether such a role of world parliament should be assigned to the Union itself lead to the quasi-abandonment of the idea and a shift towards promoting a governmental organization of the world rather than insisting on some popular representation.

Inter-Parliamentary Union - Reform Proposals

Cecil Plan 1919

American World Parliament proposal 1905