December Constitution

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The December Constitution is a summary term for the five basic state laws and the delegation law, which were sanctioned on December 21, 1867 by the Emperor of Austria , Franz Joseph I , and which came into force the next day. They were valid for the cisleithan (non-Hungarian) countries of the Habsburg monarchy until they split up in October / November 1918 . In accordance with the settlement with Hungary of June 1867, the delegation law was passed in the Kingdom of Hungary in the Hungarian language with the same content; otherwise the Hungarian constitution differed considerably from the cisleithan one.

Emergence

The emergence of the December Constitution is closely connected with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise to see through the hitherto unified Empire of Austria in the existing two countries Austro-Hungarian monarchy was transformed.

In 1865, Franz Joseph suspended the Basic Law on Reich Representation , the core of the February constitution of 1861 ( February patent ) , and dissolved the Reichsrat in order to single-handedly negotiate the so-called compromise, the finding of a compromise between the wishes of the Magyar ruling class and those of the monarch .

The settlement negotiations were concluded in March 1867. Now the settlement in Cisleithanien still had to be reconstructed by the Reichsrat, which was convened again after the negotiations were concluded (in Hungary the Reichstag dealt with this). On May 22, 1867, the Reichsrat was convened and presented with a fait accompli. The government under Prime Minister Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust intended to "buy" the consent of the Reichsrat to compensate for this by bringing two further government proposals to the House of Representatives together with the relevant government proposals, which reintroduced the legal ministerial responsibility and the monarch's right to issue emergency ordinances strictly should be regulated. In contrast, numerous MPs called for a new constitution.

Finally, the Constitutional Committee of the House of Representatives decided on July 24th that no new constitutional charter was to be drafted , but only the Basic Law of 1861 to be modified and supplemented by further "special laws"; In doing so , it would be advisable, as far as it is possible under the changed circumstances , to adhere to the relevant provisions of the Constitution of March 4, 1849 - the October Constitution .

In July - on the basis of modified government bills - the emergency ordinance law of the Basic Law on Reich Representation was specified and the validity of the emergency ordinances was limited to the period until the next meeting of the Reichsrat, and legal ministerial responsibility was introduced, i.e. the possibility for each of the two houses of the Reichsrat to accuse a minister of alleged violation of the law before a newly established state court.

In December 1867, the Reichsrat finally passed a total of six constitutional laws, which, following imperial sanctions , came into force on the day of publication, i.e. on December 22, 1867, on the basis of a separate proclamation law, which was intended to ensure the political union character, and which were referred to as the December constitution :

  • The law of December 21, 1867, which changes the Basic Law on Representation of the Reich of February 26, 1861
  • The Basic State Law of December 21, 1867 on the general rights of citizens for the kingdoms and countries represented in the Imperial Council
  • The constitution of the state of December 21, 1867 on the establishment of an imperial court
  • The state constitution of December 21, 1867 on judicial power
  • The state constitution of December 21, 1867 on the exercise of governmental and executive power
  • The law of December 21, 1867 on matters common to all countries of the Austrian monarchy and the way they are dealt with (the so-called delegation law; the name Austrian monarchy here still followed the old structure of the monarchy, which was abandoned with the settlement, but the new name was , Austro-Hungarian monarchy , first elected by Franz Joseph I on November 14, 1868)

Laws

Basic Law on Reich Representation

The Basic Law on Reich Representation was the only one of the constituent parts of the December constitution not to be a new law, but had already been passed in 1861 in the course of the February patent ; In 1867, however, it underwent some major modifications.

  • The distinction between a further Reichsrat responsible for the entire Habsburg Monarchy and a narrower Reichsrat responsible only for the non-Hungarian states was omitted; from then on the Reichsrat was only responsible for the non-Hungarian (cisleithan) countries; the provisions on the Hungarian, Croatian and Transylvanian deputies (as well as on the deputies of the Lombard-Venetian kingdom, which was finally lost in the Peace of Vienna in 1866) were therefore dropped.
  • The competence regulations have been changed in accordance with the regulations of the compensation.
  • Regarding the right of the emperor to rule by imperial ordinance in urgent matters when the imperial council was not met, it was stipulated that such ordinances were to be countersigned by all ministers who thus assumed responsibility and that the legal force of these ordinances would expire if the The government failed to submit the ordinances to the House of Representatives within four weeks after the House of Representatives met again .
  • Parliament also saw itself strengthened by stipulating the necessity of annual tax permits and by introducing control rights vis-à-vis the government, in particular by anchoring the right of interpellation, i.e. the right to address questions to ministers.
  • The immunity of parliamentarians, which was supposed to protect them from attacks by the government, had been regulated by a separate law since 1861, has now been incorporated into the Basic Law on Reich Representation.

The number of members of the House of Representatives has been increased several times and their voting mode has been gradually democratized. On April 2, 1873, the Reichsrat was expanded from 203 to 353, on June 14, 1896 to 425 and on January 21, 1907 to 516 members.

The House of Representatives of the Reichsrat held its last session on November 12, 1918; it lasted only ten minutes, and very few MPs from the areas that had fallen away from Old Austria still attended. The committee reports that were on the agenda were no longer discussed. Since the law did not provide for formal self-dissolution, it was decided not to set another meeting date.

State constitution on the general rights of citizens

Basic data
Title: State constitution on the general rights of citizens
Long title: State constitution of December 21, 1867, on the general rights of citizens for the kingdoms and countries represented in the Imperial Council
Abbreviation: StGG
Type: Federal Constitutional Law
Scope: Republic of Austria
Legal matter: Constitutional law
Reference: RGBl. No. 142/1867 (= p. 394)
Date of law: December 21, 1867
Last change: Federal Law Gazette No. 684/1988
Expiration date: Governing Law! Constitutional status through Art. 149 Para. 1 B-VG.
Legal text: idgF
Please note the note on the applicable legal version !

The constitutional law on the general rights of citizens for the kingdoms and states represented in the Reichsrathe  (StGG, also StGG 1867) came about on the initiative of the constitutional committee. It contained a catalog of fundamental rights, which was essentially based on the model of the March constitution of 1849. The provisions were:

The Basic State Law on the General Rights of Citizens was the only one of the basic state laws of 1867 to be incorporated into the republic of Austria , which was founded in 1918, and made  part of federal constitutional law by being mentioned in Art. 149 of the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG) . According to the prevailing teaching, however, type 1 StGG 6 B-VG and type of 66-68 was. By Art.. 19 StGG by the type. Treaty of St. Germain , derogate . The latter speak explicitly of the Slovenian and Croatian minorities in Carinthia, Styria and Burgenland, but Article 19 itself is still legally valid. Art. 20 and the law of 1869 issued on its basis were expressly repealed by Art. 149 (2) B-VG.

In 1973, the StGG was supplemented by a provision for the protection of telecommunications secrecy  (Art. 10a), and in 1982 by a provision for the protection of the freedom of art (Art. 17a). The law on the protection of personal freedom of 1862 (cf. Art. 8 StGG) was replaced in 1988 by a new federal constitutional law, the federal constitutional law on the protection of personal freedom .

Pope Pius IX condemned the Basic Law in a secret consistory on June 22, 1868 as "lex infanda" ("hideous law"). On the same occasion he also criticized the May Laws of 1868 .

State constitution on the establishment of an imperial court

The constitutional law on the establishment of an imperial court was also initiated by the constitutional committee. The model was on the one hand the imperial court provided for in the constitutions and draft constitution of 1848/49, on the other hand a never activated provision of the February constitution that the State Council (dissolved in 1868) should also be able to decide on conflicts of jurisdiction and in contentious matters of public law.

The court of public law began its work in 1869 and served until the end of 1918. The Reichsgericht had its seat in Vienna.

Constitutional law on judicial power

The state constitution on judicial power was based on the initiative of the constitutional committee. It guaranteed u. a. the independence of the judiciary , the separation of judiciary and administration, the return to the indictment process in criminal proceedings, the reintroduction of jury jurisdiction for political and press trials and - as an essential, but initially neglected innovation - the introduction of administrative jurisdiction in Austria. The activation of the administrative court did not take place until July 2, 1876.

State constitution on the exercise of government and executive power

The Basic State Law on the exercise of governmental and executive power also came back on the initiative of the Constitutional Committee and represented the counterpart to the Basic State Law on judicial power, in that it regulated the executive. In particular, the irresponsibility of the monarch and the responsibility of the ministers were laid down (the more detailed provisions on this were contained in a law passed on July 25, 1867). The emperor was left in command of armed power; the ministers' right to issue ordinances was regulated.

Delegation Act

The unofficial (the name is not found in the Reichsgesetzblatt) "Delegationsgesetz" law on matters common to all countries of the Austrian monarchy and the way they are dealt with was based on one of the four government proposals submitted to the Reichsrat in June and was the Austrian counterpart to the Hungarian article of law XII / 1867 on the Austro-Hungarian settlement. It owes its short name to the fact that legislation in the common affairs of the monarchy had to be carried out by delegations of the Austrian Reichsrat and the Hungarian Reichstag, which met annually in parallel ; The financial compensation was provided by smaller deputations, which were active about every ten years and had to negotiate the percentages of Cis and Transleithania in the budget of the three joint ministries .

Each of the two delegations consisted of 60 members and one third consisted of members of the manor house or the magnate house , two thirds of members of the House of Representatives of the Reichsrat or Reichstag. The documents that the delegations had to deal with were mostly politically coordinated in the two states and had to be, since debates between the two delegations were not planned: they usually met at the same time in one of the two capitals, but separately . Resolutions came about when identical motions in both delegations, independently of one another, achieved a majority.

If, despite several attempts, this turned out to be ineffective, each of the two delegations could request a joint plenary meeting of both delegations, as was also mentioned in Article 15, in accordance with Section 31 of the Delegations Act; the other delegation could not refuse. In this case, the same number of Austrian and Hungarian delegation members were entitled to vote, even if more members of one of the two delegations were present. In this case, the pro and contrast votes were counted together, not separated according to delegations. Since joint meetings would have symbolized the idea of ​​the empire, which was valued by the Austrian, but not the Hungarian, side, the Hungarian side consistently avoided having joint meetings.

As common or pragmatic matters (thus imperial and royal) according to § 1 were exclusively of the law:

  • a) foreign affairs
  • b) warfare with the epitome of the navy, but excluding u. a. of the recruiting system
  • c) finance with regard to points a) and b).

In accordance with these points, the Foreign Ministry and the War Ministry were declared joint ministries and a joint Ministry of Finance was established. The Ministry of War was now responsible for the common army and navy , but not for the newly established, separate land forces of Cis and Transleithania.

Furthermore, in accordance with Section 2 of the Act, some matters were not administered jointly, but were dealt with in both parliaments - not in the delegations - according to the same principles and resolved unanimously ( dualistic matters ):

  • a) commercial matters (especially customs legislation)
  • b) indirect taxes on industrial production
  • c) the determination of the coinage and the monetary rate
  • d) Decisions regarding those railway lines which affect the interests of both halves of the empire
  • e) the establishment of the defense system

The activities of the delegations and the deputations became obsolete with the termination of the Compensation by the Kingdom of Hungary on October 31, 1918.

Original texts

Wikisource: Delegation Act  - Sources and full texts

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. RGBl. No. 147/1867 (= p. 407)
  2. RGBl. No. 141/1867 (= p. 389)
  3. RGBl. No. 40/1873 (= p. 161)
  4. ^ Stenographic minutes of the meeting of the House of Representatives on November 12, 1918
  5. a b Law of May 5, 1869, whereby based on Article 20 of the Basic State Law of December 21, 1867, RGBl. No. 42, the powers of the official government to dispose of temporal and local exceptions from the existing laws are determined. RGBl. No. 42/66 (EReader, ALEX Online ) - regulates the occasion for martial law and a state of emergency in the event of civil unrest or "activities that threaten the constitution or endanger personal security";
    compare emergency provisions of the Austrian Federal Constitution .
  6. ^ Basic State Law on the General Rights of Citizens (ris.bka).
  7. Peter Pfleger:  Was there a culture war in Austria? Munich 1997, p. OA
  8. Maximilian Liebmann: From Political Catholicism to Pastoral Catholicism . In: Franz Schausberger (Ed.): History and identity . Festschrift for Robert Kriechbaumer on the occasion of his 60th birthday (=  series of publications by the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library, Salzburg ). tape 35 . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78187-5 , p. 257 .
  9. RGBl. No. 143/1867 (= p. 397)
  10. RGBl. No. 144/1867 (= p. 398)
  11. RGBl. No. 145/1867 (= p. 400)
  12. Quotation from the Hungarian Article XII of June 12, 1867, in: Rudolf Hoke, Ilse Reiter: Collection of sources for Austrian and German legal history , Böhlau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-205-98036-0 , p. 433, margin no. 2117 ( restricted Preview in Google Book Search).
  13. RGBl. No. 146/1867 (= p. 401)