Leopold II’s accession to the imperial throne in 1790 raised hopes in wide circles within the monarchy for a change in the political course pursued by the House of Habsburg. Obviously tempted by this hope and undoubtedly aware of the “favourable constellation”, a group of Galician noblemen succeeded in launching a remarkable constitutional initiative with the aim of obtaining a special constitutional statute for Galicia, i.e. for the newly acquired province (Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria) of the House of Habsburg. The paper traces the relevant dispute between the representatives of the Galician high nobility and the court in Vienna in 1790/91 over a special constitutional statute for Galicia, which culminated in the drafting of a Leopoldine Charter. In the end, however, the Charter was not realised – above all because of the untimely death of Emperor Leopold II in March 1792.

Keywords: Charta Leopoldina, Constitutional Courts of Galicia, Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Magna Carta of Galicia, Reform Plans of Emperor Leopold II

The fundamental change in the penal system at the turn of the 19th century with its transition to custodial sentences as the central sanction brought about major challenges to the state administration of the Habsburg Monarchy. From the middle of the 19th century, the authorities used a new instrument in their efforts to establish a well ordered and organised penitentiary system. As an early form of outsourcing of public tasks, the operation of entire prisons was conferred to Catholic women’s congregations, which took over management and administration. This paper asks which considerations of the authorities as well as the congregations motivated this model, how their integration into the penal system was organised and whether it proved successful. To this end, it will first look at the historical context of administrative reforms and the penal system around the middle of the 19th century on the one hand and the founding of charitable congregations on the other, before focussing on the specific arrangements between the central authorities and the religious orders and the role they played in the prisons.

Keywords: criminal law, Habsburg Empire, penitentiary system, religious congregations

Ever since Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen publicly praised the “eleganceof the Austrian Federal Constitution“, the later has been at the center of media attention. The narrative of the B-VG as an Austrian specificity and as the crowning contribution of the legal scholar Hans Kelsen to the creation of the Austrian state, persists. This article tests this narrative and provides a new perspective on the making of the Austrian Constitution.

Keywords: Adolf Merkl, Alfred Verdross, Austrian Constitution (B-VG 1920), fall of the Habsburg Empire, foundation of the First Republic, Hans Kelsen, Karl Renner, Swiss Constitution, Weimar Constitution

The paper deals with the activities of the Lemberg Special Court, one of the German special courts in the district of Galicia in the General Government in 1941–1945. Depending on the state of preservation of the sources, I tried to find answers to questions pertaining to defendants of different nationality, such as what punishments they were sentenced to; whether and in which cases the death penalty was imposed; who directed the work of the special court; which judges belonged to it and which prosecutors took part in the proceedings before the special court; and where the lawyers involved in the work of the special court came from. The source base for the investigation was archives (court files, personnel files), literature, and the press. On this basis, original, previously unknown insights into the Lviv Special Court were gained.

Keywords: death penalty, Galicia, Galizien, hiding Jews, occupation, special court

This paper aims to trace the development of marital-law jurisdiction of the Transylvanian Reformed Church and to present the problems of private law collision and the Reformed Church's response to them, which formed the legal basis of thise social phenomenon. In the second half of the 19th century, the complex system of Hungarian marriage laws gave rise to “marriage migration”. The Supreme Marital Court of the Reformed Church in Transylvania responded to the decades-long situation by regulating the “per viam instantiae” procedure, which became one of the most controversial legal institutions.

Keywords: 19th century, Hungary, marriage law, Reformed Church, Transylvania

Procedure at the diets of the Holy Roman Empire was guided more by customary than by statutory law. Its consolidation from about the end of the 15th century onwards and its growing complexity meant that contemporaries, especially those who held procedural functions, felt an increasing need to record in writing how the diets were usually conducted. This is probably behind a short text entitled “Notabilia”, in which an Austrian official involved in the direction of the princes’ chamber in 1640/41 noted procedural changes to what he considered to be the usual practice. The document indicates that a shift in the power balance between electors and princes, including the emperor as archduke of Austria, caused by the ongoing Thirty Years’ War and more than a quarter of a century without a diet, was making itself felt and was being fought out on a procedural and ceremonial level. In this struggle, customary law worked less as a legal basis than as an argumentative framework. This helps to understand how customary law could be adapted to historical change.

Keywords: Archduchy of Austria, customary law, Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Diet, Thirty Years’ War

Following the abolition of parliamentary democracy in March 1933, the Austrofascist dictatorship was established and the rule of law was undermined, with the judiciary in particular being brought into line with the government. In February 1934, the independence of judges was abolished, as they could no longer be transferred or dismissed solely on the basis of the findings of a judicial disciplinary court, but at the discretion of the Minister of Justice. On the other hand, the possibility of reprimanding lawyers and trainee lawyers was introduced, which reduced the independence of the legal profession. The Minister of Justice could now prohibit lawyers from practising and remove trainee lawyers from the register. This paper first examines the detention of lawyers and trainee lawyers, both through formal judicial or police criminal proceedings and through extrajudicial detention in detention camps. The core of the study focuses on professional disqualifications - explicit bans on the practice of law and removal of trainee lawyers from the register - using disciplinary records maintained by the Ministry of Justice. Further attention is given to related issues such as the revocation of professional licences following deprivation of citizenship, relevant aspects of disciplinary law for lawyers, exclusion from court practice, denial of admission to the trainee list and removal from the list of defence counsel.

Keywords: Austrofascist dictatorship, disciplinary measures, independence of the legal profession, lawyers, measures of reprimand, rule of law, trainee lawyers

Collective decision-making processes are currently attracting considerable interest both in legal scholar ship and historiography. These debates also open up new perspectives for the study of early modern central courts such as the Imperial Aulic Council. The files and minutes of this council amount to more than one kilometre of shelves in the Haus, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna. The paper discusses the potential of these sources for interdisciplinary and procedural studies. This also involves the question of how the formal and informal integration of the decision-making process into the structures of the Viennese imperial court can be analysed. Finally, a planned digital humanities project for indexing the minutes of the Imperial Aulic Council will be presented.

Keywords: Imperial Aulic Council, collective judging, decision-making, Holy Roman Empire, sociology of organizations

Although there is no strict system of separation of church and state in Austria, a decline in the importance of judicial oaths is clearly evident. This can be observed in both the legal and factual areas. The focus of this study of the relevant legal developments is on considerations of equality law. These relate to the equal treatment of religious communi-ties as well as of religion and non-religious beliefs.

Keywords: equal treatment, freedom of belief, freedom of religion, oath, vow

In the research on "Rechtstatsachen" (legal facts), the development of the Austrian judiciary since the collapse of the Nazi regime has largely been described without considering the influence of the respective military governments. This paper analyses and assesses the influence of the French military government on the re-establishment of the Austrian judiciary in Vorarlberg and Tyrol on the factual level. It concludes that the judicial policy of the French military government hindered re-establishment to a significant extent. Its intervention had harmful consequences, particularly for the People’s Courts charged with trying and sentencing Nazi criminals.

Keywords: French military government, organisation of the judiciary, judiciary, administration of justice, Nazi judicial system, legal facts, lay assessors, court of lay assessors, People’s Court, re-establishment of the Austrian judiciary