Appeals to the Imperial Aulic Council (1519-1740)

The appeal is a fundamental means of legal remedy, which has its origin in the Roman and the canon law. It has been implemented in different parts of Europe at different times, as early as in the middle ages in France, in the 15th and 16th centuries in the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, in England, however, not before the 19th century. As it allows an examination of judicial proceedings and verdicts - formally as well as with respect to the arguments ventured - by a court of a higher instance (devolutio), and as it stops the execution of the possibly incorrect judgment during its examination (suspensio), the appeal improves the quality of the dispensation of justice. As it requires a hierarchically structured court system, in which the higher courts are able to control the lower ones, the appeal works in favour of legal unity. Since the legal sphere often coincides with the political sphere, there have also been political implications. The research project aims at a comprehensive study of appeals to the Imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat), which was one of the two supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (Altes Reich) during the early modern period, the other one being the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht) in Speyer, later Wetzlar. The documentary evidence examined will be primarily the records of lawsuits in the Imperial Aulic Council`s archives from 1519 to 1740, which was the decisive phase for the implementation of the appeal to the Council. On the basis of these sources, problems in the field of legal history will be addressed, for example, the proceedings of the Council in appeals and the law on which it was to base its decisions. In addition to that, questions in the field of history have to be asked, especially about the role of the emperor and his court in the judicial practice of an Empire composed of a great variety of territories. By pursuing an interdisciplinary approach, in addition to its being based on unpublished sources, the project will be able to contribute to various recent discussions, including whether the Reich can be considered an integrated judicial and legal realm and a modern (or early modern) state, to what extent it was able to offer its subjects an efficient protection of their rights, and what the role each of its supreme courts was with respect to one another. The project is the second one of its kind within the framework of the research programme "Reichshofrat" pursued by the Commission for Austrian Legal History of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, a programme intended to contribute to the efforts towards the improvement of access to the Imperial Aulic Council`s archives, which are carried out in cooperation with national and international partners, especially the Academy of Sciences in Gottingen/Germany and the Family, Court and State archives (Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv) in Vienna.

Appeals are representing a fundamental factor of legal remedy and have, therefore, always been an important topic of legal history. Apart from the interest in procedural matters appeals to the imperial courts have to be seen also as an example for the power struggle between the Empire and its territories. Their study therefore will reveal the constitutional balance of power between Emperor and imperial estates and at the same time contribute to highlight the relationship between appellants and defendants and their territorial authorities. Research into the Imperial Aulic Council as a court of justice made considerable progress recently. The inventories of its archives which are being digitized since the last fifteen years in the framework of various projects show that up to one third of the lawsuits conducted by the Council were appeals. This enormous number proves their importance both for the daily work of the Council and for the judicial life of the Empire in general. However, despite this importance appeals to the supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire, the Imperial Chamber Court and the Imperial Aulic Council, have so far been examined rather on the basis of normative sources, not on the basis of the numerous records produced in the course of law suits of these courts of justice. Therefore the present project aimed to remedy this deficiency by investigating the procedures of the Imperial Aulic Council in its capacity as a court of appeal, the topics of lawsuits, the geographical and social background of appellants and defendants as well as the effects of the sentences issued by the Council. Equally examined were the conditions for the acceptance of an appeal, the cooperation between the Council and lower courts, the ratio between final verdicts and compromises or the interests and strategies pursued by both the parties of lawsuits and the Council or the Emperor himself. Also raised were questions whether appellants used other means apart from the appeal to achieve their goals, e.g. other courts or mediators, or whether they used their appeals primarily to exercise pressure upon their opponents to increase their willingness to compromise. The answers provided to these questions, based upon a statistical survey of all appeals from three selected periods, contribute to our knowledge with regard to the use made of the judicial system (Justiznutzung), the role of the Imperial Aulic Council with respect to the settlement of conflicts within the Empire and the character of the Empire as a common legal area bound together by the supreme judicial office of the Emperor.