CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY

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CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY
Hans Kelsen and the Austrian Federal Constitution

A republican history lesson

In 1920, Hans Kelsen, the „lawyer of the century“, as DIE ZEIT called him, drafted the republican federal constitution of the new Austria as a non-partisan constitutional judge.
It was Karl Renner who, after the collapse of the monarchy, brought the former university professor, advisor to the Imperial and Royal War Minister and Emperor Hans Kelsen to the State Chancellery in November 1918. In November 1918, after the collapse of the monarchy, it was Karl Renner who brought Hans Kelsen, former university professor and advisor to the Imperial and Royal Minister of War and the Emperor, into the State Chancellery and commissioned him to work on a federal constitution for the young republic. On 1 October 1920, the Constituent National Assembly unanimously passed the new federal constitutional law. And this year it celebrates its 100th birthday.
The clear and sober language of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Law has often been praised; it corresponds to Kelsen's "Pure Theory of Law", at the centre of which is a conception of law "purified of all political ideology". According to Kelsen, legal norms describe an "ought" which, unlike religious and ethical norms, is generally enforceable. Accordingly, Kelsen defined the state as a legal order.

Heinz Fischer, Lawyer and university professor, was Austrian Federal President for 12 years (2004-2016). Prior to this, he held various political offices: he was a SPÖ member of the National Council, Minister of Science and President of the Austrian National Council (1990-2002)
In 2018, he was government coordinator of the "Year of Remembrance and Commemoration", in which the Republic of Austria celebrated its 100th birthday. Since 2018, he has been Co-Chair of the Ban Ki-Moon Centre for Global Citizens.

Moderation
Wolfgang Maderthaner, Historian, Association for the History of the Labour Movement