The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has played a pioneering role not only in defining standards for elections, but also in stimulating discussion on how best to measure their success or failure. It has done so through the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections, adopted in 1994, and also through a study entitled Free and Fair Elections: International Law and Practice, which was published that same year under the authorship of Guy Goodwin-Gill. The Declaration and study offered a particularly unique contribution to the electoral enterprise, providing an understanding of the underpinning principles of an ideal election. They were also an important step towards demonstrating how to achieve that ideal in tangible terms.