Uses of Civil Justice in Central Europe, 1895-1938

The project analyzes long-term uses of civil justice in the Habsburg Monarchy and in the successor states Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania, after the implementation of procedural codes in Austria (1895/1898) and Hungary (1911/1915). It focuses on the individual mobilization of civil justice, that is on the access of majority populations but also vulnerable groups to justice, while considering the disruptions caused by World War I., the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, and the legal and infrastructural continuities into the successor states. We explore the social and economic background of civil lawsuits, as well as the social functions of litigation. We view the district court as a unique social space, shaped by its own professional hierarchies and gendered routines, and we examine how it interacts with litigants and their everyday expectations. This perspective sheds new light on how both majority populations and vulnerable minorities accessed justice, and how this process was shaped and controlled by the state. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of how formal ways of resolving conflicts persisted or changed during periods of political transformation. What social, economic, political, and institutional factors led individuals to turn to the courts? How did the role of civil litigation in society evolve after the procedural reforms and up to 1938? What legal and administrative measures helped make litigation more affordable, effective, and accepted by the public? In what ways did the interaction between states and citizens unfold through the concrete, material setting of the courts? And how did patterns of continuity and disruption shape the legal landscape of Central Europe during this period? The project investigates the factors that shaped and influenced civil litigation through a comparative and historically grounded analysis of district court activity. The core of the empirical research is based on court archives, supplemented by additional sources related to the judicial system. This qualitative work is supported by a quantitative analysis using a legal statistical database that includes data from key regions across the post-Habsburg space. A systematic study of the social functions of civil litigation offers a fresh perspective on the transformation of legal, social, and political order during the final years of the Habsburg Monarchy and in interwar Central Europe. By examining how and why people turned to civil courts, the project sheds light on formal mechanisms for managing social conflict during times of political changeand on how political regimes sought to control these processes. Through a combination of comparative historical micro-analysis of courtroom procedures and quantitative data analysis, the project also aims to develop an innovative methodological approach to studying how justice was used in the past. Primary researchers involved PD Dr. Borbala Zsuzsanna Török (University of Vienna) - PI Dr. Mtys Erdélyi (University of Vienna) - Postdoctoral Researcher