The British Institute of International and Comparative Law was created by the merger in 1958 of the Society of Comparative Legislation (founded in 1895) and the Grotius Society (founded in 1915). At a conference of worldwide lawyers and legislators in 1895, the Lord Chancellor was elected the first President of the Society of Comparative Legislation, with the object of 'promoting knowledge of the course of legislation in different countries'. The aim was to learn from the diversity of legal roots throughout the world - English, Hindu, and Muslim; French, Roman-Dutch, and Spanish - in which courts such as the Privy Council had to adjudicate.