Scientists of the State, Science of the State, and the State: Austrian and German Public Lawyers in the Short 20th Century Part 1: The Age of Catastrophe, 1914-1945

Abstract

Between the First World War and the end of the Cold War, Germany and Austria, whose legal cultures were highly interdependent in terms of persons, conceptions, and institutions, saw eleven or twelve fundamentally different regimes, depending on the interpretation of Austria’s status from 1938-45. Lawyers often ensured the legal functioning of these regimes and legitimized their existence. This again affected their notions of law, legality, and justice, and of the principles underlying these concepts, as well as their personal preferences and societal roles.

Keywords

• germany
• austria
• 1914-1945
• public law
• law and political systems