Photo: Agnes Stadlmann

Biography

General Information, Education and Career

Jan-Jun 25 Visiting Professor at Stanford University
Aug-Dec 24 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 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 1991Member, 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)
2006-2010Head 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