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Legal philosophy has a long tradition in Vienna, dating back to the days of the natural law theorists Karl Anton von Martini (1726–1800) and Franz von Zeiller (1751–1828). During the first half of the twentieth century, Viennese legal philosophy earned itself international acclaim when Hans Kelsen (1881–1973) and his collaborators developed a pronounced and much debated version of legal positivism, the so-called Pure Theory of Law. Owing to the initiative of Gerhard Luf, whose works have contributed considerably to the rehabilitation of practical reason in legal philosophy, the discipline became established as a separate Department in 1985. 

In 2005, the Department of Legal Philosophy was merged with the Department of Law and Religion. It dated back to the founding of the Vienna law faculty and was home to many eminent scholars, such as Paul Joseph von Riegger (1705–1775), a defender of religious toleration, and Max Hussarek von Heinlein (1865–1936), a leading theorist of the legal relation between the state and religious communities. Under the stewardship of Richard Potz, the discipline was expanded into the comprehensive study of law and religion. 

This fused unit has been given its current name in 2016.

Part of the interdisciplinary research of this faculty is the research unit "Hans Kelsen and his Circle", headed by Prof. Jabloner.

 

News - Publications - In the media

• 2022 06 30, Workshop "The Redress of Law. Debating Christodoulidis", Bruno Kreisky Forum
• 2022 06 09, Aristel Skrbic (University of Leuven), "EU Law: where ontos and telos become one"
• 2022 06 02, Dr. Julian Scholtes (Newcastle University), „The abuse of constitutional identity: A conceptual framework”, REWI-Hörsaal, Schenkenstraße 8-10, 2^nd staircase, 4^th floor
• 2022 05 25, Dr. Michal Bobek (ECJ Advocate General), „When is a court an activist court? New dimensions of an old discussion“, SEM 63, Juridicum, Schottenbastei 10-16, 2^nd staircase, 4^th floor
• 2022 05 19, Prof. Andrei Marmor (Cornell Law School, New York), "Interpretation in Law and Elsewhere: Meaning, Object and Truth", REWI-Hörsaal, Schenkenstraße 8-10, 2^nd staircase, 4^th floor
• 2022 05 10, Clemens Jabloner takes part in the symposium "Wiedererrichtet inmitten von Trümmern. Der Oberste Gerichtshof 1945" at the Supreme Court with his talk "Der Neuaufbau von Staat und Justiz".
• 2022 05 05, Prof. Susanna Lindroos-Hovinheimo (University of Helsinki), "How to study conceptions of personhood in law: The case of European privacy law"
• 2022 05 04, Alexander  Somek talks about "Das Gespenst der Unvernunft: Über die Schwierigkeit liberal zu sein", Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg
• 2022 05 03, Clemens Jabloner gives a speech on "Kelsen und die Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit" on the opening day of the exhibition "Im Namen des Rechts. Der Verfassungsgerichtshof und Hans Kelsen" at the Constitutional Court.
• 2022 04 28, Dr. Katharina Isabel Schmidt (Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und
  internationales Privatrecht Hamburg), „Free Legal Reasoning: A History”
• 2022 04 07, Prof. Yaniv Roznai, Ph.D.(Harry Radzyner Law School, Reichman University IDC Herzliya), „When the constitution is like a house: On metaphors in legal reasoning”
• 2022 04 06 new published: "European Law Open", Volume 1, issue 1, Cambridge Univ. Press, CoEdit.: A. Somek
• 2022 03 31, „Constitutional Law in the Pandemic: Contested Self-Images and Popular/Populist Appropriations” , Marie Luisa Frick (Universität Innsbruck)
• Conference „Rechtsstaat und Demokratie unter Druck – Perspektiven in der sozialen und ökologischen Krise“, 2022 03 24, is jointly organized from juridikum – Zeitschrift für kritik – recht – gesellschaft, Arbeiterkammer Wien  and Institut für Rechtsphilosophie.
• "Empathie statt Aufrüstung", Elisabeth Holzleithner reflects about the current situation of women in the Ukraine, Rudolphina, 2022 02 25
• Stefan Hammer gives a lecture on "Der Vertrags- und Eigentumsbegriff in vernunftrechtlichen Konzeptionen" at the conference of Union of Constitutional History, 2022 02 23
• Stefan Schima comments on the side letter prepared in the course of the last coalition negotiations, which among other things dealt with the planning of a headscarf ban for female teachers, Religion ORF, 2022 02 01
• Vienna Lectures on Legal Philosophy, Alon Harel talks about "On the Political Significance of Classifying Norms as Constitutional Statutory or Adjudicatory: A Political Theory of Legal Institutions", 2022 01 20
• Elisabeth Holzleithner's contribution to the question of the semester "Worauf legen wir noch Wert?", 2022 01 17
• Alexander Somek in conversation with Philipp Blom from Kreisky's living room about "Moral als Bosheit", 2022 01 10, 7 pm on the youtube channel of the Bruno Kreisky Forum
• Alexander Somek provides a brief introduction into his most recent book "Knowing what the law is", 2022 01 07