Photo: Agnes Stadlmann
Biography
General Information, Education and Career
| 2025 | Visiting Professor at Stanford University |
| 2024 | Visiting Scholar at Stanford University |
| 2019-present | Professor for Austrian and European Legal History at the University of Vienna |
| 2017-present | Head of the Legal Sources Research Centre of the University of Vienna |
| 2013 | Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg |
| 2011-present | Managing Director of the Hans Kelsen Institute (Federal Foundation) |
| 2004-2014 | Lecturer at the Pan-European University Bratislava |
| 2003-2019 | Associate Professor at the University of Vienna |
| 2003 | Habilitation in Austrian and European Legal History at the University of Vienna. Habilitation thesis: “The Development of Press Law in Austria up to 1918” |
| 1992-2003 | Assistant at the Institute of Legal History with Prof. Dr. Werner Ogris |
| 1996-1998 | Doctoral studies in law at the University of Vienna; dissertation: “The Introduction of Administrative Jurisdiction in Austria”, Ph.D. dissertation, accepted 30 October 1998 |
| 1991-1995 | Study of law at the University of Vienna; graduated 21 December 1995 |
1979-1991 | School in Vienna; school-leaving examination at Gymnasium Kundmanngasse 28 May 1991 |
| 1973 | Born in Vienna as the son of the Professor of Education Prof. Dr. Richard Olechowski |
| Family | Married; one daughter, two sons |
Memberships and functions (selection)
| since 2024 | member of the International Honory Council of the Centro de Estudios Hans Kelsenof the Universidad de Buenos Aires |
| since 2022 | Member of the Reconciliation Advisory Council according to § 5 Aufhebungs- und Rehabilitationsgesetz (BMJ - Versöhnungsbeirat) |
| since 2013 | Member of the Association for Constitutional History (Vereinigung für Verfassungsgeschichte) |
| since 2008 | Member (2008-2013, corresponding member, since 2013, full member) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften) |
| since 2003 | Member, 2010-2012 and since 2014 Chairman of the Commission for Legal History of Austria (Kommission für Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences |
| since 1996 | Member, 1997-2007, board member, 2003-2005 Chairman of the Association of Catholic Academics of the Archdiocese of Vienna (Katholischer Akademikerverband der Erzdiözese Wien) |
| since 1991 | Member, from 2003, repeated appointments to the board, during 2004-2005 president of the Society for Viennese Legal History (Wiener Rechtsgeschichtliche Gesellschaft) |
Select Externally-Funded Projects
| since 2023 | Head of the FWF Project "The Making of the Federal Constitutional Law 1920" (International Project I 5679: Cooperation with DFG Project 471843206) |
| 2017-2021 | Research partner in the Austrian Science Fund project “The legal significance of the Treaty of St. Germain” (FWF grant no. P 29774) |
| 2011-2015 | Head of the Austrian Science Fund Project “Kelsen’s Life in America (1940-73) and the Worldwide Dissemination of his Theory of Law” (FWF grant no. P 23747) |
| 2009-2013 | Head of the Austrian Science Fund Project “The Vienna Faculty of Law and Political Science 1918-1938” (FWF project, grant no. P 21280) |
| 2006-2010 | Head of the Austrian Science Fund Project “Biographical Studies on Hans Kelsen in the Years 1881-1940” (FWF, grant no. P 19287) |
Awards
- 2021 Science Award of the Margaretha Lupac Foundation of the Austrian Parliament for Parliamentarism and Democracy
- 1998 Alfons Tropper Prize of the Austrian Academy of Sciences for research in the field of the Austrian rule of law