Gerald Kohl

Die Mitglieder der österreichischen Zentralparlamente 1848–1918. Konstituierender Reichstag 1848–1849, Reichsrat 1861–1918. Ein biographisches Lexikon

legislative powers, where the presidencies play an outstanding political role. Historians of law and parliamentary law have been more concerned with the workings of parliament than with historical change. With regard to the presidents of the two chambers, this is the first contribution that employs a long-term analysis of the presidents of the Spanish Parliament. Urquijo analyses the different systems of electing the presidents of the congress, the duration of their terms in the post and their functions. In addition, he conducts a biographical analysis in which, by periods, he shows the average duration of the terms, their prior and subsequent experience as parliamentary members, and the number of times they were elected president. He notes that the importance of the work of the presidency can be appreciated in the leap they make from this post to a ministry or to the presidency of the government. Nicolas Patin and Andreas Schulz analyse the German case in two different phases: first, from the Weimar Reichstag with the work of Paul Löbe – who occupied the post for almost the whole period – as the focal point of their analysis, and second, the study of the presidents of the Bundestag from 1949 until 2012. Finally, Mario di Napoli and Filippo Cinoglosi analyse the evolution of the institution in the Italian Parliament between 1848 and 2011 in relation to the successive presidents. They consider the change in the role of the presidents and in their conclusions reflect on the presidents who intervened in the creation of majorities or had a more institutional and neutral role. On the contrary, in parliaments with a bipolar structure it seems that the functions to be performed by the president are different, insofar as he/she is the defender of the general political and constitutional interests. Obviously, the personality of the president is also an additional element of great significance. Finally, the work includes a detailed index of names and places. In conclusion, this book is a significant contribution that will serve as a reference for future research on contemporary parliaments in which biographies and the public role of presidents are significant attributions for explaining political and parliamentary dynamics.

English constitutional law in Austrian popular legal literature of the nineteenth century

SUMMARY ‘Popular legal literature’ is a source that has been widely disregarded by historians as well as legal historians until the present day. The following article provides an outline with basic information about this literary genre and its typology with regard to its motivation, style, contents and authors. After this general overview the article then proceeds to show the nature of the information about English constitutional law that can be evidenced from Austrian popular legal literature books of the nineteenth century, and comparisons are made with other sources.

Alter und Wahlrecht. Zum Verhältnis bürgerlicher und politischer Rechts- und Handlungsfähigkeit seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts

SUMMARY The Austrian voting age was lowered to 16 in 2007. With this reform Austria has become a ‘pioneer’ of voting-age reduction. The change was motivated by the wish to improve the participation of young people in the political process. The voting age is different from the age of majority. In Austrian legal history two periods can be distinguished: until the end of World War I the voting age was always the same as the age of majority; after 1918 there were long periods of difference, but all voting-age reductions sooner or later were followed by reductions of the age of majority. If the voting age is not necessarily the same as the full age, why does the right to vote not begin with birth? The issue of a ‘childrens suffrage’ has been discussed in the Austrian Constitutional Reform Convention, the German Bundestag, and in many law journals. Three different solutions are proposed: (a) parents could have a more powerful vote for their own (family suffrage); (b) children could exercise their right to vote for themselves; (c) parents act as their childrens legal representatives (childrens suffrage—deputy model; the most important in public discussion). Almost all of the arguments for or against these types have already been used in French parliamentary discussions since 1850, but a ‘childrens suffrage’ was never realized in France. In Austria, this actually existed in the nineteenth century: children paying taxes (e.g. for real property) had the right to vote for the local (municipal) council and (sometimes) for the provincial diet; this right was exercised by their legal representative (usually their father). This system was not adopted for the Austrian state parliament. Here, electoral reform in 1907 brought ‘universal, equal, secret and direct suffrage’—but only for men of age.