House law

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The house law , house rules or house contract are rules that families of the high nobility gave (and still exist in Liechtenstein today) to regulate family and property law issues. The reason for this is that in most monarchies state law entitles the nobility to regulate their affairs autonomously .

Succession to the throne

Usually the right of inheritance or right of succession to the throne was regulated , for example the priority of the firstborn ( primogeniture ), the exclusion of female succession according to the Lex Salica or their approval, for example in the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. These house laws were often before the enactment of these house laws all sons of a ruler from a marriage commensurate with their status were heirs to the throne with equal rights, which had to lead to the fragmentation of the territory.

In Liechtenstein , the succession to the throne is regulated by house law and not by a state law of succession to the throne. Art. 3 of the constitution of October 5, 1921 reads: The succession to the throne in the Princely House of Liechtenstein, the age of majority for the Reigning Prince and Hereditary Prince and, if applicable, guardianship are regulated by the Princely House in the form of a house law.

Disciplinary supervision

One of the family law regulations was that the head of the family, usually the ruling monarch, often had the right to make the final decision about the place of residence, the royal household, the spouse and foreign trips of a prince or princess of his house. The head of the family also had to act as an arbitrator in disputes between family members; the appeal to ordinary jurisdiction was mostly excluded. This was to ensure the dynasty's glory and prestige. Special rules stipulated the conditions under which unequal spouses were allowed and how a member of the house could leave this house or that a female member had to leave if married.

Family foundation

Many noble families owned Fideikommisse , which are inalienable family foundations . The head of the family had to decide how the income from this special fund was to be used for the representative lifestyle of those family members who did not have sufficient private assets of their own . The rules for this were mostly part of the house laws. (In republics , these entails were often abolished by law, with the head of the family being the sole owner.)

Today's validity

Many formerly noble families still observe their house laws today. These are formulated as a contract in accordance with the rules of civil law. The validity of an inheritance contract following the rules of the house law was confirmed in the case of the Prussian family by the Federal Court of Justice . However, the Federal Constitutional Court overturned this decision on the basis of a constitutional complaint from Friedrich Wilhelm , Louis Ferdinand's eldest son, by the decision of March 22, 2004 (Az .: 1 BvR 2248/01), because freedom of marriage according to Art . 1 of the Basic Law (GG) and the abolition of the monarchy as a form of government is incompatible.

Individual house laws

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Decision of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) on the succession in the Prussian family, decision of the Federal Court of Justice of December 2, 1998 - file number: IV ZB 19/97 -, printed in [decisions of the Federal Court of Justice in civil matters =] BGHZ 140, 118 and [Neue Legal weekly publication, CH Beck-Verlag] NJW 1999, 566
  2. ^ Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 22, 2004