030272 KU Introduction to Austrian Constitutional History and Constitutional Theory since 1867 (2024S)

The course in question aims at giving an introduction into Austrian constitutional history since 1867 and tries to connect legal history with a history of legal thought. Given that legal thoughts did not develop independent of space and time, but always are a by-product of historical and sociological developments/movements, the course undertakes the attempt to connect both legal history and methodology. A special focus of the course is put on the Vienna School, a group of jurists and legal philosophers that gathered around Hans Kelsen, the father of the Austrian Constitution, at the beginning of the 20th century and together with him created what is today known as the Pure Theory of Law.
In this course we will - figuratively speaking - travel back in time to the Vienna of the fin de siècle - the Vienna of Freud, Klimt, Schnitzler, Mahler - and we will take a closer look at the emergence of Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law. We will talk about the historical events and the philosophical movements such as legal positivism and neo-Kantianism that influenced Kelsen and his circle. Moreover we will take a closer look on Kelsen's main works such as The Pure theory of Law (1st edition) or "What is justice?", so that by the end of this course you will be having a good idea of Kelsen’s Pure Theory and it’s main aspects.