Die juristische Bildung an der k.u.k. Konsularakademie, mit Fokus auf die staatsrechtlichen Studien

Abstract

The institutional predecessors of the recent Diplomatic Academy in Vienna took a significant impact on the civil service of the Habsburg Monarchy. The Oriental Academy was founded by empress Maria Theresia in 1754 to train dragomans for the eastern relations. The Academy stood under Jesuit influence and became a secular institution in the middle of the 19th century. By this time the political and legal studies had been dominated on behalf of human and natural sciences and the Academy had been turning to a special institution for training professionals for the foreign service (central service, diplomatic service, consular service). In 1898 the Oriental Academy was transformed into the Imperial and Royal Consular-Academy by Minister Gołuchowski. This reform affected the educational structure as well and the institution focused on the consular branch. The quota of political and economical courses increased as a reflection to the intensive global trade, but on the other hand Austrian and Hungarian Constitutional Law were also set in the new educational system due to the public legal transformation of the Monarchy in 1867 (Austro-Hungarian Compromise). This study aims to present the brief institutional history of the Oriental and Consular Academy and the way the educational system of the Academy had evolved. At last, it is going to be observed to what extent constitutional legal studies were represented in the courses of the institution and how they interpreted the disputed legal nature of the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.