The first Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge were published in 1928.
There have been successive revisions in 1933, 1935, 1943, 1949, 1963, 1975
and 1987.
Through the Thirties, the Laws were promulgated by the Portland Club of
London and the Whist Club of New York. From the Forties onwards, the
American Contract Bridge League Laws Commission has replaced the Whist
Club, while the British Bridge League and European Bridge League have
supplemented the Portland Club's efforts. The 1975 Laws were also
promulgated by the World Bridge Federation Laws Commission as they have
been in 1987 and the current version.
This latest revision supersedes the 1987 Code on September 1, 1997.
Zonal authorities may implement the new Code any time after March 1, 1997.
In the American Contract Bridge League the revised laws are effective on
May 27, 1997.
In the 1975 Laws and prior, words such as may, should, shall and must
were used without much discrimination; in 1987 they were rationalized, and
the practice is continued in the current Laws. When these Laws say that a
player "may" do something ("any player may call attention to an
irregularity during the auction"), the failure to do it is in no way
wrong. A simple declaration that a player "does" something ("... dummy
spreads his hand in front of him ...") establishes correct procedure
without any suggestion that a violation be penalized. When a player
"should" do something ("A claim should be accompanied at once by a
statement ..."), his failure to do it is an infraction of law, which will
jeopardize his rights, but which will incur a procedural penalty only
seldom. In contrast, when these Laws say that a player "shall" do
something ("No player shall take any action until the Director has
explained ..."), a violation will be penalized more often than not. The
strongest word, "must" ("before making a call, he must inspect the face of
his cards"), indicates that violation is regarded as serious indeed. Note
that "may" becomes very strong in the negative: "may not" is a stronger
injunction than "shall not", just short of "must not".
A great deal of effort has been expended to make these Laws easy to
use. References from one law to another have been made more explicit. The
hundreds of headings and sub-headings can help a Director find the section
of a law that is applicable to the facts of a case (these headings are for
convenience of reference only; headings are not considered to be part of
the Laws). The Table of Contents at the front of the book and the
alphabetical index at the back should make a Director's task lighter.
The Drafting Committee notes with sorrow the passing of many previous
contributors to the Laws whose imprint remains in the new Code - Jean
Besse and Colin Harding of the WBF Laws Committee, and B. Jay Becker,
Easley Blackwood and Alfred Sheinwold of the ACBL Laws Commission. We also
acknowledge the efforts of Stewart Wheeler of the Portland Club for his
help and advice.
The Drafting Committee acknowledges with gratitude the work of Rena
Hetzer, who acted as secretary and liaison in the preparation of this
revision.
THE LAWS COMMISSION
of the American Contract Bridge League
|
| EDGAR KAPLAN, Co-Chairman |
| RALPH COHEN, Co-Chairman |
| Karen Allison |
Jeffrey Polisner |
| Richard Goldberg |
Eric Rodwell |
| Amalya Kearse |
George Rosenkranz |
| Sami Kehela |
Roger Stern |
| Chip Martel |
Peggy Sutherlin |
| David McGee |
Katie Thorpe |
| Robert Wolff |
|
| |
| |
|
|
| EDGAR KAPLAN, Chairman |
| Karen Allison |
Grattan Endicott |
| Ralph Cohen |
Chip Martel |
| Roger Stern |
|
| |
| |
THE LAWS COMMISSION OF
THE WORLD BRIDGE FEDERATION
|
| EDGAR KAPLAN, Chairman (USA) |
| Ralph Cohen, Vice Chairman
(USA) |
| Ton Kooijman, Vice Chairman
(NETHERLANDS) |
| Jens Auken (DENMARK) |
Robert A. Howes (USA) |
| Max Bavin (GREAT BRITAIN) |
Jaime Ortiz-Patiño
(SWITZERLAND) |
| Carlos Cabanne (ARGENTINA) |
Jeffrey Polisner (USA) |
| Claude Dadoun (FRANCE) |
Rebecca Rogers (USA) |
| José Damiani (FRANCE) |
Willian Schoder (USA) |
| David Davenport (PORTLAND CLUB) |
John Wignall (NEW ZEALAND) |
| Grattan Endicott (GREAT BRITAIN) |
James Zimmerman (USA) |
| Santanu Ghose (INDIA) |
|
