constitutional thinking beyond borders
Just published – Austrian Legal Culture

Just published – Austrian Legal Culture

Konrad Lachmayer published together with Niklas Sonntag the article “Austrian Legal Culture”, in Søren Koch/Knut Einar Skodvin/Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde (eds), Comparing legal cultures.

Hardcover: 358 pages
ISBN-13: 9788245020915

The Republic of Austria is a central European country with a surface area of about 83,860 square kilometres and a population of 8.5 million people. It borders eight countries: Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Republic was founded in 1918 as a successor state of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the Federal Constitutional Act (Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz) of 1920 is still in force today. The so-called First Republic (1918-1933) was followed by phases of authoritarian Austro-fascism and National Socialism (1938-1945) and eventually re-established as a democratic republic (Second Republic) as proclaimed on April 27, 1945. In 1955, Austria regained its sovereignty from the Allies in exchange for the guarantee of permanent neutrality. The same year, Austria became a member of the United Nations Organisation, before joining the Council of Europe in 1956, the European Free Trade Association in 1960 and finally, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, becoming a member of the European Union in 1995. ……