Karl Anton von Martini

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Karl Anton von Martini

Karl Anton von Martini, Baron zu Wasserberg (born August 15, 1726 in Revò , Hochstift Trento , Holy Roman Empire , † August 7, 1800 in Vienna ) was an Austrian lawyer and legal philosopher during the Enlightenment .

Life

Martini was born as the eldest son of the notary Carlo Ferdinando de Martini. From 1739 to 1741 he attended the Jesuit grammar school in Trento. In 1741 he began studying in Innsbruck . With Paul Joseph Riegger , the holder of the chair for natural law , constitutional law and imperial history, he acquired a thorough knowledge of natural law, which he learned from 1747 to 1750 at the University of Vienna and then as a self-study on a trip to Prague, the Netherlands, Spain and northern Italy Hofmeister of Johann Sigismund Friedrich Graf von Khevenhüller deepened.

In 1754 he became a university professor for institutions and natural law in Vienna. He created textbooks for legal history , natural and constitutional law, which shaped legal teaching at all universities in the Habsburg countries until the end of the 18th century and were also used in Portugal and Brazil. His students included Joseph von Sonnenfels (1733–1817), Franz von Zeiller (1751–1828) and a large number of lawyers, theologians and publicists who were promoters of Joseph’s reform policy in the second half of the 18th century. From 1761 to 1765 he taught Archduke Peter Leopold , who later became the Grand Duke of Tuscany and Emperor, as well as four other children of Maria Theresa in legal subjects.

From 1760 Martini was a member of the Studienhofkommission dealing with questions of school and study reform. In 1765 he reformed the University of Innsbruck. From 1764 Martini held a judge's office at the Supreme Judicial Office and was appointed a member of the Legislative Commission in 1773. Joseph II appointed him Councilor of State in 1782 . In this function Martini was mainly concerned with state church politics, school and study issues as well as judicial reform and legislation. In 1785 he was sent to Milan to implement the Josephine judicial reform in Lombardy , and at the end of 1786 Martini traveled to Brussels on the same mission. The judicial reform in the Austrian Netherlands failed due to resistance from the estates. Martini, contrary to Joseph II's opinion, had pleaded for a moderate approach and was then dismissed as a councilor. During the brief reign of Leopold II (1790–1792) Martini resumed his reform activities as a study and legal reformer. In 1792 Emperor Franz II appointed Martini as the second president of the Supreme Judicial Office , the forerunner of today's Supreme Court . Martini succeeded in completing the civil law codification by the end of 1796 with a complete draft, which was only slightly changed and published in 1797 as the West Galician Code . The system, legislative technique and legal language of this codification became the basis of the General Civil Code (ABGB) published in 1811 .

Alongside his student Franz von Zeiller, Martini is considered to be the most important representative of the law of reason in Austria. Martini's system of natural law is methodically shaped by Christian Wolff (1679–1754), but otherwise an autochthonous creation that Martini, as a reform Catholic and opponent of probabilistic moral theology , had developed from sources of late Spanish scholasticism .

Bust in the pillared hall of the University of Vienna

In honor of Martini, a portrait bust was placed in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna, which was made by the Viennese sculptor Hans Mauer .

Works

Ordo historiae iuris civilis , 1803
  • Ordo historiae ivris civilis praelectionibvs institvtionvm praemissvs ... Viennae Austriae typis Joannis Thomae Trattner caes. reg. mayest. avlae typogr. et bibliop. MDCCLV
Other editions: Vienna 1757, 1770, 1779, 1794 (German), Koblenz 1782, Brussels 1788, Valencia 1788, Pavia, 1803, Coimbra 1807, 1817, 1826, 1844, 1853
  • Caroli Antonii de Martini, scram in supremo judiciorum tribunali a consiliis aulicis et ppo de lege naturali exercitationes sex. Vindobonae, e typographeo Kaliwodiano [1766]
Other editions: Vienna 1770, 1776, 1780, 1783 (German), Klausenburg (Cluj) 1776, Koblenz 1781, Coimbra 1794, Buda 1800
  • De lege naturali positiones in usum auditorii vindobonensis. Viennae Austriae, e typographeo Kaliwodiano, anno M.DCC.LXII.
Other editions: Vienna 1764, 1767, 1771 (German) 1772, 1778 (Trattner), 1778 (Kurzböck), 1782, 1783 (German), 1787 (German), 1797 (German), 1799 (German), Lisbon 1772, Klausenburg (Cluj) 1777, Koblenz 1780 (digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf : urn : nbn: de: hbz: 061: 1-77541 ), Brussels 1789, Bétsben 1792 (Hungarian), Buda 1795, Coimbra 1802, 1825, 1840 , Pernambuco (Recife) 1830
  • Caroli Antonii de Martini scram in supremo judiciorum tribunali a consiliis aulicis et ppo positiones de jure civitatis in usum auditorii vindobonensis Vindobonae typ. Joann. Thom. nob. de Trattnern sac. caes. reg. aul. typogr. et bibliop. MDCCLXVIII.
Other editions: Vienna 1773 (Trattner), 1773 (Kurzböck), 1775, 1779, 1780, 1783/84 (German), 1788 (German), 1797 (German), 1799 (German), Lisbon 1772, Koblenz 1781, Buda 1795 , Coimbra 1802, Pernambuco (Recife) 1830

literature

To person:

Especially for the legal work:

  • Heinz Barta, Günther Pallaver (Hrsg.): Karl Anton von Martini: An Austrian lawyer, law teacher, judicial and educational reformer in the service of natural law (= law and culture. Vol. 4). Lit Verlag, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0502-9 .
  • Heinz Barta: Karl Anton von Martini's lasting importance for Austrian and European law. Lecture publication, undated
  • Gregor Lässer: Martini’s legal philosophy and Austrian private law: From Martini’s “teaching concept of natural law” (1762) to the General Civil Code (1811/12) (= Law and Culture. Vol. 5). Lit, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7000-0796-8 .
  • Rudolf Palme: The natural law background of martinis. In: Heinz Barta, Rudolf Palme, Wolfgang Ingenhaeff (ed.): Natural law and private law codification. Conference proceedings of the Martini-Colloquium 1998. Manzsche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung Wien 1999, ISBN 3-214-00003-9 , pp. 113-136.
  • Gabor Hamza: Origin and development of modern private legal systems and the Roman law tradition . Budapest 2009, ISBN 978-963-284-095-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Vollmer (ed.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century . Leipzig 1930, Volume 24, p. 274.
personal data
SURNAME Martini, Karl Anton von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martini Freiherr zu Wasserberg, Karl Anton von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and legal philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1726
PLACE OF BIRTH Revò , Diocese of Trento , Holy Roman Empire
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1800
Place of death Vienna