Kremsier draft

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The Kremsier draft was an Austrian draft constitution that was drawn up at the Kremsier Reichstag in 1848 , but never came into force. In contrast to its predecessor, the Pillersdorf constitution , it exhibits modern constitutional principles and represents (high) constitutionalism .

prehistory

After Pillersdorf's constitution was declared a provisional arrangement on May 15, 1848, the Reichstag elected in July, which now consisted of only one chamber, the House of Representatives, met for the first time in Vienna to draw up a new constitution. As there was still unrest in Hungary, the then War Minister Count Theodor Baillet de Latour sent troops to Hungary to support the Croatian nobles around Ban Jelačić in suppressing the uprising. The workers and students who sympathized with the Hungarians tried to prevent the march, which ultimately led to the Vienna October Revolution . The War Department was stormed and de Latour was murdered by being lynched by the crowd and then hanged from a street lamp. The emperor and the government fled to Olomouc , a town in Moravia; These events forced the Reichstag to move its seat to Kremsier , a nearby town. There, the Constitutional Committee discussed in two separate departments the catalog of fundamental rights and the other parts of the constitution, which together formed the Kremsier draft .

Components

The Kremsier draft was very progressive for the time and, in contrast to its predecessor, the Pillersdorf constitution , and its successor, the imposed March constitution , was based on popular sovereignty and the separation of powers in legislation, administration and jurisdiction. The latter combines monarchical legitimacy with popular sovereignty, and state power is now also the people in addition to the monarch. The constitution should initially be in the Habsburg hereditary lands, but z. B. not come into force in Hungary and Lombardo-Veneto, but the inclusion of further countries "in the Reichsverband, for which the constitution applies" (§ 6) was planned.

Here, too, the Reichsrat should consist of a two-chamber system:

  • People's Chamber
  • State Chamber

The competence of the Reichstag includes all matters, insofar as they are not assigned to the state parliaments. The emperor and the Reichstag are involved in legislation at the level of the empire, and the level of the emperors and the regional or district assemblies, which must be convened at certain times ( legislature ). In addition to the right to initiate legislation, parliament now also has the right of self-assembly. The emperor only has a suspensive and no longer absolute veto , that is, he cannot permanently prevent laws from being drawn up unless they affect his legal status.

Together with the Council of Ministers, it forms the government ( executive ). The ministers are solely responsible for the "management of the Reich government", with a Reichsrat advising them. The emperor is strictly bound by the constitution in exercising his rights.

Jurisdiction is given by independent courts. A new addition is a “Supreme Reich Court”, which is supposed to function as a kind of constitutional court.

The catalog of basic rights was expanded, as § 1 of the basic rights the sentence “All powers of the state proceed from the people” was established, but it had to be deleted again during the final deliberations. Fundamental rights continued to remain state objectives and not subjectively public rights .

The federalism came much more to the fore than in the Pillersdorf Constitution , it was in the Reichstag as a second chamber, a country instead of a chamber-sized chamber furnished. The countries should have their own legislation and also participate in that of the state as a whole. So they would have been treated equally. One of the reasons for the expansion of federalism was probably the attempt to solve the nationality problem that emerged strongly in the Austrian countries as a result of the European Revolution in 1848 (e.g. Risorgimento in Italy). This should be done by dividing larger countries into nationally uniform districts, nationally closed constituencies and a national court of arbitration.

consequences

On December 2, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I abdicated in favor of his nephew Franz Joseph I , as his marriage had remained childless. The pronounced sovereignty of the people and the limited rights of the monarch prompted Emperor Franz Joseph I to dissolve the Reichstag because he was too busy with the "theoretical discussions" and did not represent the entire Austrian Empire. Instead, on March 4, 1849, a new constitution and a fundamental rights patent were issued. This new constitution prevented the Kremsier draft from coming into force, but took over all institutions with the exception of popular sovereignty.

literature

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