Allgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch

The General Civil Code ( Civil Code) is the 1812 which came into force and is still in force main codification of civil law in Austria and is thus the oldest valid Code of the German legal system.

Development

The preparatory work for a codification of the Austrian civil law already began in the mid -18th century with the Codex Theresianus and Josephine Code. The real precursor of the General Civil Code was created by Karl Anton von Martini Westgalizische Code, which was set in 1797 in the recently occupied by the Habsburg Monarchy West Galicia as a test in validity.

Francis of Zeiller, a student martinis, is the creator of this body of law. The Civil Code was promulgated as an imperial patent (law) on 1 June 1811 and joined on 1 January 1812 in the German hereditary lands of the Austrian monarchy in power. The extension of the scope to the entire Habsburg Monarchy, ie in particular to Hungary, stayed Episode ( 1852-1861 ).

The collapse of the monarchy had no immediate impact on the scope of the Civil Code, it was the successor states initially unchanged, in part, the territorial scope area was even extended: so in particular 1922 on the hitherto Hungarian Burgenland, came to the Republic of Austria in that year (but not in Slovakia, where the Hungarian civil law remained in force ). Only the law books of the socialist Czechoslovakia (1951) and Poland (1965 ) completed the local applicability of the Civil Code, so that it applies only in the Republic of Austria (as well as in the Principality of Liechtenstein ) today; in Croatia it is subsidiary source of law today.

In the text of the Civil Code was hardly intervened in the first hundred years, until the three sub- amendments to the Civil Code of 1914, 1915 and 1916 brought a lot of changes, especially an adaptation to the German Civil Code of 1896. Extensive reforms were made then again in the seventies years (especially in family law, so there incapacitation was replaced in 1984 by right of guardianship. ). We are currently working on an amendment to the tort law.

Large parts of the Austrian private law, however, are now regulated outside the Civil Code in its own laws, such as the Marriage Law, the Rent Act or the Consumer Protection Act. Nevertheless, it is still the basis of the Austrian civil law system, and thus in addition to the French Civil Code, the oldest standing in force, characterized by rational legal thought civil law codification.

Division of the Civil Code

The classification follows the system of institutions:

• Preamble / Promulgationsklausel
• Introduction: Of the civil laws at all (General Section)
• Part 1: From the personal rights ( rights of individuals, see the General Section, Family Law )
• Part 2: From the real rights ( property law, inheritance law, law of obligations )
• Part 3: From the Community provisions governing the rights of persons and property (see General Section)

The Civil Code understands the " right thing " property law in the modern sense, the law of succession and the law of obligations. The Austrian law sees this division as historically and teaches civil law notwithstanding after Pandektensystem.

Legislative text

The current text of the law of the Austrian Civil Code ( and the entire prevailing Austrian federal law) can be found in the Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria ( see Related links ) of the Federal Chancellery. As far as the text of the original version comes from, he is also reproduced by the former notation.

Where the conditions still exist in the original version from 1811 (about three quarters), it is important to note the historical use of language in the interpretation (eg, " satisfaction " = damages).

Due to the fact that many provisions of the Civil Code dating back to the original version, comes and came commentaries on the Civil Code of great importance. First comment of the Civil Code wrote Francis of Zeiller itself Furthermore, the comments left by Stubenrauch, sound, Schwimann to call Rummel, who had great influence on the Austrian civil jurisdiction at any time.

Broadcast

The Civil Code has been widely rezipiert, such as in Liechtenstein ( FL General Civil Code ), Turkey ( which, however, under Atatürk, the Swiss Civil Code and Code of Obligations took over ), Czechoslovakia, Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Croatia and Romania.

Further Readings

• Franz Klein - Bruckschwaiger: 150 years Austrian Civil Code. In: JuristenZeitung. ( JZ ). Vol 18, No. 23/24, 1963, ISSN 0022-6882, pp. 739-741.
• 200 years the General Civil Code ( = Jus Alumni Magazine 01/2011, ZDB - ID 2632957-8, . PDF, 2.4 MB). LexisNexis, Vienna, 2011.
• Andreas Fijal, Winfried Ellerbrock: The Austrian Civil Code on 1 June 1811 - an anniversary special kind In: Legal training. ( JuS ). Vol 28, No. 7, 1988, ISSN 0022-6939, pp. 519-523.
• Wilhelm Braun Eder: The Austrian Civil Code as neuständische civil law codification. In: Georg Klingenberg, J. Michael Rainer, Herwig Stiegler (eds.): Vestigia Iuris Romani. Festschrift for Gunter Wesener 60th birthday on June 3, 1992 ( = Grazer law and political science studies. Vol. 49). Leykam, Graz 1992, ISBN 3-7011-8964-1, pp. 67-80.
• Wilhelm Braun Eder: Civil Code. In: Albrecht Cordes, Heiner Lück, Dieter Müller work, Ruth Schmidt- Wiegand (ed.): Concise Dictionary of German legal history. HRG. Volume 1: Aachen - Spiritual Bank. Second, completely revised and enlarged edition. Schmidt, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-503-07912-4, 146-155 Sp.
• Gunter Wesener: On the importance of the usage modernus pandectarum for the Austrian Civil Code. In: Friedrich Harrer, Heinrich Honsell, Peter Mader (ed.): commemorative volume for Theo Mayer- Maly. On his 80th birthday. Springer, Wien, among others 2011, ISBN 978-3-7091-0000-4, pp. 571-592.