The election law of the Reichsrat contains the further regulations concerning the exercise of the right to vote and concerning the conduct of elections.1

ART. 8. Public officers and functionaries who may be elected to the House of Representatives do not need a leave of absence in order to attend the meetings of that body.

ART. 9. The Emperor appoints the president and vice-president of the House of Lords from among its members, and for the term of the session. The House of Representatives elects from its own members its president and vice president. Each of the houses chooses its other officers.

ART. 10. The Reichsrat shall be convened annually by the Emperor, during the winter months when possible.

ART. 11. The competence of the Reichsrat extends to all matters which relate to the rights, obligations and interests common to the countries represented therein, in so far as these matters are not to be handled in common, in consequence of the agreement of the countries of the Hungarian crown with the other countries of the monarchy. Thus, the competence of the Reichsrat extends to:

a. The examination and approval of commercial treaties and of those political treaties which place a financial burden upon the Empire or upon any part thereof, which place obligations upon individual citizens, or which have as a consequence a change of the territory of the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrat.

b. All matters which relate to the form as well as to the regulation and term of military service 2; particularly the annual grant of military forces, and the general provisions regarding the furnishing of relays and the maintenance and quartering of troops.

c. The establishment of the budget, and particularly the annual grant of taxes and duties to be levied; the examination of the accounts and of the results of the financial administration, the final approval of such accounts; the issue of new loans, the conversion of the existing State debt, the alienation, transformation, or burdening

1 The text here given is that introduced by amendment of 26 January 1907. Before this change there were five classes of electors: (1) The great landowners, comprising those who paid a certain land tax, varying in the several Provinces from 50 to 250 florins; this class elected 85 representatives. (2) The cities, where the electoral franchise was

extended to all males of 24, who paid a tax of 5 florins; this class elected 99 representatives. (3) Chambers of commerce and of industry; this class alone elected 21 representatives and together with the second class chose 19 others. (4) Rural communes, in which the qualifications for voting were the same as in the cities; this class elected 129 representatives. (5) A fifth class created by law of 14 June 1896 included all males who had attained the age of 24 years; this class chose 72 representatives.

The amendment of 1907 abolishes the class system of voting, and establishes universal suffrage for all representatives. The election law of the Reichsrat of 26 January 1907 makes the further provisions for elections under the new system of universal suffrage; each Province is divided into election districts, most of which choose only one representative; each commune forms a voting precinct.

2 Laws of 11 April 1889 and 6 June 1886.

of the public domain; legislation concerning monopolies and seigniorial rights, and in general all financial affairs which are common to the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrat.

d. The regulation of the monetary system and of banks of issue, of customs and commercial affairs, of the telegraph, post, railways, navigation, and of other means of communication within the Empire.

e. Legislation concerning credits, banks, patents of invention, industry, with the exception of legislation concerning the monopoly of liquor; weights and measures, the protection of trade-marks and of industrial models.

f. Legislation concerning public health and for protection against epidemics and epizootics.

g. Legislation concerning citizenship and domicile, the police control of foreigners, the system of passports and the taking of the

census.

h. Concerning confessional relations, the rights of assembly and of association; concerning the press and the protection of literary and artistic property.

2

i. The establishment of the principles of the educational system in the primary and secondary schools, and legislation concerning the universities.

k. Legislation concerning criminal justice and police penalties 3; the civil law, with the exception of legislation concerning the details of the systems of public registries and concerning such matters as, in the terms of the provincial constitutions and of this fundamental law, belong within the competence of the provincial diets; legislation concerning commercial law and commercial paper, maritime law, mines and feudal rights.

7. Legislation concerning the principles of the judicial and administrative organization.

m. The laws to be passed in execution of the fundamental laws concerning the general rights of citizens, the imperial court, the judicial power and the administrative and executive power.

n. Legislation concerning the matters which relate to the duties and relations of the particular countries among themselves.

0. Legislation concerning the manner of handling matters which, through the agreement with Hungary, are recognized as common to the two parts of the Empire.

ART. 12. All matters of legislation other than those expressly reserved to the Reichsrat by the present law belong within the power

1Law of 20 December 1859, amended 15 March 1883 and 8 March 1885.

Law of 14 May 1869, amended 2 May 1883.

Code of Criminal Procedure of 23 May 1873; Penal Code of 27 May 1852.
Commercial Code of 17 December 1862.

Law of 23 May 1854.

of the provincial diets of the kingdoms and countries represented in the Reichsrat and are constitutionally regulated by such diets.1 In matters which, according to the principles of the provincial constitutions and of this fundamental law, belong within the competence of provincial legislation, the provinces in the regulation of such affairs may also adopt necessary measures in the fields of criminal justice, police justice and civil law.2

Within the field of provincial legislation belongs also the regulation of the organization of public administrative offices which are created by the exercise of the power of provincial legislation to organize autonomous administrative departments, the activities of which are based upon the principles reserved to imperial legislation by Article 2 7 of this fundamental law."

However, should a provincial diet decide that a matter committed to it ought to be discussed and decided in the Reichsrat, such matter, for this particular case and with reference to this diet, shall come within the power of the Reichsrat.

ART. 13. Projects of laws may be submitted to the Reichsrat by the government. The Reichsrat shall also have the right to propose laws upon matters within its competence.

Every law requires the agreement of the two houses and the approval of the Emperor.

If it should happen that, in certain items of an appropriation act or with reference to the size of the contingent, in a recruiting act, no agreement can be reached between the two houses after repeated deliberation, the lowest figure shall be considered as granted.

ART. 14. If urgent circumstances should render necessary some measure constitutionally requiring the consent of the Reichsrat when that body is not in session, such measure may be taken by imperial ordinance, issued under the collective responsibility of the ministry, provided it makes no alteration of the fundamental law, imposes no lasting burden upon the public treasury, and alienates none of the domain of the State. Such ordinances shall have provisionally the force of law, if they are signed by all of the ministers, and shall be published with an express reference to this provision of the fundamental law.

1 The 17 divisions of the Empire form 15 provincial governments, the city of Triest, the county of Görz and Gradiska, and the Margravate of Istria being combined into a division called Coastland. Each division establishes its own Landesordnung or provincial constitution; each has a provincial diet, which exercises the legislative power, and a provincial committee, which exercises the executive power in local affairs. The Emperor convenes the diets annually, appoints their presidents, and may dissolve them at any time; every provincial law requires his approval. The principal executive and administrative officer of the province is the Statthalter or Landespräsident, who is appointed by the Crown and is independent of local control.

This paragraph added by Law of 26 January 1907.

The legal force of such an ordinance shall cease, if the government neglects to present it for the approval of the Reichsrat at its next succeeding session, and indeed first to the House of Representatives, within four weeks after its convention, or if one of the two houses refuses its approval thereto.

The ministry shall be collectively responsible for the withdrawal of such ordinances as soon as they have lost their provisional legal force.

ART. 15. For the validity of any decision of the Reichsrat there is necessary in the House of Representatives the presence of 100 members, in the House of Lords of 40 members, and in each house the vote of a majority of those present.

Modifications in the present fundamental law and in the fundamental laws on the general rights of Austrian citizens, on the establishment of the imperial court, on the judicial power, and on the exercise of administrative and executive power, shall be made only by a majority of not less than two thirds of the members present and with the presence of not less than half of the members of the House of Representatives.1

ART. 16. Members of the House of Representatives shall receive no instructions from their electors.

of

Members of the Reichsrat shall not be held responsible on account. any vote given, and for any utterances made by them in the exercise of their office they may be held responsible only by the house to which they belong.

No member of the Reichsrat shall be arrested or proceded against judicially during the time of a session, on account of any criminal act, without the consent of the house, unless he were apprehended in very act.

the

Even when the member is taken in the very act, the court shall give immediate notice of the arrest to the president of the house.

If the house requires it, the arrest must be suspended or the proceedings postponed during the session. The house shall have the same right with respect to an arrest or judicial proceeding instituted against a member when the Reichsrat is not in session.

ART. 17. All members of the Reichsrat must personally exercise their right to vote.

ART. 18. Members of the House of Representatives are elected for a period of six years.2

At the expiration of this period, as also in the case of the dissolution of the House of Representatives, a new election shall be held.

1" And with ... Representatives" added 2 April 1873.

* As amended 2 April 1873.

By the original text no limitation was placed upon the life of the Reichsrat, which came to an end only by dissolution.

The retiring representatives shall be eligible for reelection. During the intervals between general elections supplementary elections shall be held when a member ceases to be eligible, dies, resigns, or for any other legal reason ceases to be a member of the Reichsrat, in case a substitute should not have been elected for such representative. In the latter case the election law of the Reichsrat shall contain provisions concerning the management of the new election.1

ART. 19. The adjournment of the Reichsrat or the dissolution of the House of Representatives shall take place by decree of the Emperor. In case of dissolution a new election shall be held in conformity with Article 7.

ART. 20. Ministers and chiefs of the central administration are entitled to take part in all deliberations and to present their proposals personally or through representatives. Each house may require the presence of a minister. Ministers shall be heard whenever they desire. They shall have the right to vote only when they are members of one of the houses.

ART. 21. Each of the two houses of the Reichsrat may interpellate the ministers upon all the matters within the scope of their powers, may investigate the administrative acts of the Government, demand information from the ministers concerning petitions presented to the houses, may appoint commissions, to which the ministers shall give all necessary information, and may give expression to its views in the form of addresses or resolutions.

ART. 22. A special law shall provide how the control of the public debt shall be exercised by the representative bodies.2

ART. 23. The sessions of both houses of the Reichsrat shall be public.

Each house shall have the right, in exceptional cases, to exclude the public, upon the demand of the president or of at least 10 members, by a decision taken behind closed doors.

ART. 24. The law regarding the order of business of the Reichsrat shall contain detailed provisions concerning the reciprocal and external relations of the two houses.3

LAW CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN IMPERIAL COURT.

ARTICLE 1. For the decision of conflicts of jurisdiction and of disputed questions of public law an Imperial Court (Reichsgericht)

1 As amended 26 January 1907.

2 Law of 10 June 1868, amended 13 April 1870.

3 Laws of 12 May 1873, 25 January 1875 and 2 March 1875. Cf. F. MOREAU ET J. DELPECH, Les Règlements des Assemblées législatives, vol. 1 (Paris, 1906), pp. 426 and 446.