On October 1, 1920, the Federal Constitutional Law of the Republic of Austria was passed. The name of the most important constitutional lawyer from the time of the First Republic is closely connected with this event: Hans Kelsen. As a consultant in 1919/20 he was an important contributor to the constitution, which is still valid in Austria today. In particular, the establishment of a constitutional jurisdiction with the authority of the Constitutional Court to overturn general legal acts, including laws, is still associated with his name.
At the Vienna Faculty of Law and State, Kelsen founded the “Vienna Legal Theory School”, the most important of which are the constitutional lawyer Adolf Julius Merkl and the international lawyer Alfred Verdroß. His school of “Pure Theory of Law” (Reine Rechtslehre) fell apart after Kelsen's departure from Vienna in 1930, not least because of anti-Semitic hostility at the faculty.
