Constitution of the Republic of Austria

The 1920 charter, exiled by dictatorship, reborn in 1945, now a dispersed constitutional corpus.

Overview

Adopted October 1, 1920 under Hans Kelsen decisive drafting, the Austrian Constitution created a parliamentary republic and the worlds first specialized constitutional court with power to annul laws. Suspended in the 1930s authoritarian and Nazi turns, it was reinstated May 1, 1945 as the republics continuing law. Unlike single texts, Austrian constitutional law is dispersed, with the main text, fundamental rights from 1867 state basic law, and EU accession amendments forming the corpus. Its rigidity requires two thirds super majorities, and its court stands as the model copied worldwide.