A classical study on parliamentary procedure. Conceptions of parliament in Josef Redlich’s Recht und Technik des Englischen Parlamentarismus (1905)

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article I analyse the intellectual contribution of Josef Redlich’s Recht und Technik des Englischen Parlamentarismus, a classical study on the Westminster parliamentary procedure from 1905. Redlich presents the origins of the procedural literature and the revision of British parliamentary procedure in the second half of the nineteenth century, the extended post-reform parliamentary agenda as well as the Irish members’ obstruction campaign. He emphasizes parliament’s measures for dealing with the scarce time threatening to paralyze its activities. His perspective is that of guaranteeing an efficient parliamentary government in the age of democratizing representation and extending legislation, which was realized at the cost of thorough debates deliberating pro et contra. With later scholarship, we could emphasize the continuous presence of deliberative procedure and rhetoric at Westminster.