Heribert Franz Köck

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Heribert Franz Köck (also in non-German-language publications: Koeck) (born February 7, 1941 in Vienna ) is an Austrian international lawyer , European lawyer and legal philosopher . In Austria he belongs to the group of Catholic lay people who campaign for a reform of the Catholic Church in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council .

Life

Education and academic career

Heribert Franz Köck grew up in the XII. Viennese district (Meidling), where he graduated from high school Rosasgasse in 1959. From 1959 he studied law at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna . After graduating with an Absolutorium ( Magisterium ), he did his doctorate in 1964 at the University of Vienna as a Doctor iuris. In 1966 he attended the Academy of American and International Law at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas , USA, and in 1969/70 did a study and research stay at the University of Michigan , where he obtained the academic degree of Master of Comparative Law (MCL ) acquired. After completing his legal practice in 1964/65, Köck was appointed university assistant at the Institute for International Law and International Relations and at the Chair of Legal Philosophy at the University of Vienna in 1965 and was assigned to Stephan Verosta .

Since the winter semester 1966/67 Köck has been a lecturer in legal philosophy at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna and since the summer semester 1967 also a lecturer in international law. In 1969 he was appointed a member of the State Examination Commission for Political Science at the University of Vienna for the subject of international law. In the 1974/75 winter semester, Köck acquired the license to teach ( venia docendi ) for the subject of international law at the University of Vienna. In 1979, Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger awarded him the professional title of Associate University Professor. At that time also appeared with “General International Law. Ein Grundriss “is the first book in a three-volume series of textbooks written together with his Viennese colleague Peter Fischer . From 1978 to 1981 he also taught at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy . In 1981 Köck was appointed full professor for international law at the Johannes Kepler University Linz . From the summer semester of 1982 onwards, Köck was also entrusted with teaching and examining the subject of legal philosophy at the University of Linz. He also represented the subject of European law, which was not yet independent in Austria at the time . From 1986 Köck was director of the Institute for International Law and International Relations, later also of the Institute for European Law. In those years, Köck published the other textbooks “The Law of International Organizations” and “European Law” together with Peter Fischer.

In 1987 Köck was elected Dean of the Law Faculty of the Johannes Kepler University Linz for the first time and in 1989 for the second time. In 1991 he decided not to run again in order to be able to devote himself to the revision of his textbook on European law, which appeared in 1993. In the same year he was re-elected Dean of the Faculty of Law and held this position until his retirement in 2009.

As a result, together with Peter Fischer, he brought out further editions of the textbooks mentioned.

Scientific positions

Together with Stephan Verosta, Ignaz Seidl-Hohenveldern , Karl Zemanek , Herbert Schambeck and Peter Fischer, Köck is one of the representatives of the natural law Viennese school of international law and legal philosophy founded by Alfred Verdross . In his 1998 book “Law in the pluralistic society. Basic course on central questions about law and the state ”, he deals with the complex of issues of the state or community of states, law and the common good .

Köck sees the European Union not only as a useful economic and monetary community, not only as a community of law and values, but above all as a community of peace and solidarity; For him it represents the stage of development necessary under the conditions of globalization, with which the nation-state egoism is overcome and an intermediate step is taken towards the realization of the bonum commune humanitatis .

Other scientific activity

Even after his appointment to the University of Linz, he continued his teaching and examination activities at the University of Vienna, from the late 1980s also at the Scientific State Academy for Lower Austria and at the Danube University Krems , which was subsequently founded and where he also spent several years Was a member of the university council. Köck has given and continues to give guest lectures in other European and non-European countries. Since his retirement in 2009, he has been the special representative of the Johannes Kepler University Linz for Eastern and Southeastern Europe with contacts to universities in the new member states of the European Union there and in Ukraine. He also maintains relations with universities in the other Member States of the Union, particularly in Spain.

Köck belongs to several national and international academies of science and is a member of numerous scientific associations. From 2006 to 2008 he was President of the Fédération Internationale pour le Droit Européen (FIDE); in 2008 the XXIII. FIDE Congress in Linz (Austria).

Church engagement

Köck, who dealt with a comprehensive study on “The position of the Holy See under international law. Shown in his relations with states and international organizations ”, Berlin 1975, completed his habilitation, was from 1971 a voluntary employee of the permanent representative of the Holy See to the international organizations in Vienna and from 1981 also a member. He has represented the Vatican at numerous state conferences and meetings of international organizations in Europe, Latin America and Asia. His commitment was from the departure of the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council , from its declaration on religious freedom Dignitatis humanae, adopted in 1965 and the advocacy of the Vatican for human rights, as well as through the peace encyclical John XXIII. Pacem in terris from 1963 and the encyclical of Paul VI. inspired by the development of the Populorum progressio peoples of 1967. In the 1970s he also gave lectures at the Pontifical Diplomatic Academy ( Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica ) in Rome. Despite his rejection of the restorative church policy, which was already under Paul VI. had started and was promoted by John Paul II with all means, he was still available to the Vienna Representation of the Vatican. At the beginning of the 1990s, Köck was appointed a member of the Austrian Commission Iustitia et Pax .

The fact that the position of the Vatican on issues of development policy including family planning and AIDS prevention as well as the role model of women and how to deal with deviating sexual orientations met more and more often with that religious-fundamentalist regime and Rome for its part relativized the “Western” human rights began ever since these were demanded with ever greater emphasis within the Catholic Church, but made it increasingly difficult for Köck to represent the Vatican positions credibly. In 1995 he signed the Austrian “ Church referendum ”, which was triggered by the unsuccessful Roman personnel policy in the occupation of Austrian bishoprics and the subsequent scandal, and despite some official church handicaps, achieved a surprise success with 500,000 signatures, and joined the platform “ We are Church “At. The “Dialogue for Austria”, with which the bishops wanted to channel dissatisfaction, he predicted failure from the start. In fact, the dialogue was designed in such a way that many hot topics should not even be taken up; and the reform demands that were last decided in 1998 were simply deposited by the bishops in Rome instead of being actively represented.

When, after Benedict XVI took office, If there was no prospect of a solution to the pastoral problems, the Ombudsman initiated a. D. Herbert Kohlmaier in Austria in 2009 a new reform movement, the “lay initiative”, which found more than 12,000 supporters in a short time. Heribert Franz Köck, who was soon co-opted into the management team and the board and later elected to these functions, was one of them.

Köck is dedicated to the lay initiative, which in turn works closely in Austria with the platform “ We are Church ”, the “ Pastors Initiative ” and the “Priests without Office”, but also otherwise cooperates with reform-oriented groups at home and abroad, Above all, questions of religious freedom and the related reform of the relationship between church and state including the collection of church fees, questions of human rights and the participation of all "church citizens" in the church as well as questions of church procedural law, which to this day far behind the in of the European Convention on Human Rights . Among other things, he takes the view that human rights, which are rightly traced back to natural law principles in church social and political theory, also apply within the church community itself and must be comprehensively protected by positive canon law . He rejects the opposing position, namely that the individual believer must also accept canonical restrictions of his human rights in favor of the preaching of the gospel, with the argument that it is nonsensical to claim that the preaching of the gospel necessitates restrictions of human rights. He relies on a word from the founder of the Salamanca School and of modern international law, the Dominican Francisco de Vitoria , who stated at the beginning of the modern era: Nothing that is permitted by nature can be forbidden by the Gospel; Christian freedom consists precisely in this. Köck regards the resistance in the form of the “loyal disobedience” also propagated by the pastor's initiative as a justified means of implementing the necessary church reform “from below”.

As far as the relationship between church and state is concerned, this, according to Köck, does not depend on an understanding between these two “powers” ​​over the heads of the people, but is to be determined by the religious freedom of the individual, the freedom of the churches and Religious communities are only derived. However, as the state, as part of its welfare function, is obliged, like all other cultural interests, to promote the religious interests of its citizens, according to Köck, corresponding financial contributions by the state to the churches and religious communities are also to be paid for their socially valuable services (such as kindergartens, Schools, hospitals, old people's homes) are permissible and required as far as possible on the basis of a comparable treatment of all religious and ideological communities. Köck rejects a secularism that seeks to limit the religious to the private sphere as with the freedom of the individual guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, “his religion or worldview individually or in community with others, publicly or privately, through worship, lessons to practice and observe religious customs ”is incompatible.

Köck belongs to a number of Catholic associations, including several colored Catholic student associations in the MKV , the ÖCV and the Bund KöL .

further activities

He is President of the Austrian-German Cultural Society and Honorary President of the Austrian Society for European Law.

Awards

Köck holds honorary doctorates from the University of Piteşti and the University of Alba Iulia, holds various scientific prizes and awards, including the Science Medal of the City of Linz , the Theodor-Körner-Prize , the Leopold-Kunschak-Prize and the Kardinal-Innitzer-Advancement Prize for Law - and political sciences , as well as bearer of the Cross of Honor for Science and Art 1st Class and the Great Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria , the Great German Federal Cross of Merit and the Commander's Cross of the Spanish Order Isabel la Católica as well as the Golden Commander's Cross of the State of Lower Austria and the Silver Decoration of Honor of the Province of Upper Austria .

literature

• Peter Fischer / Margit Maria Karollus / Sigmar Stadlmeier (eds.): The world in the field of tension between regionalization and globalization. Festschrift for Heribert Franz Köck. Vienna 2009

Publications

• List of publications (PDF; 428 kB)

Web links

• Literature by and about Heribert Franz Köck in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lay initiative

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heribert Franz Köck in the course catalog of the University of Vienna (from winter semester 1994/95)