„Kompetenzverteilung“ avant la lettre? Methodisch-theoretische und wissenschaftshistorische Reflexionen zur Zuständigkeitsverteilung in vormodernen Mehrebenensystemen

Abstract

After an introductory discussion of the emergence and dissemination of the term ‘distribution of competencies’by German legal science after the foundation of the German Empire and its reception in the Austrian Monarchy,the question is raised as to whether this concept of distribution of competencies can already be used for premoderntimes, i.e. before the constitutionalisation of European states. First, the complex multi‐level system of theHoly Roman Empire as well as the composite state of the Austrian Monarchy will be analysed in detail. Subsequently,the public law doctrine of the Holy Roman Empire (the science of the ‘ius publicum imperii’) is examined to seewhether approaches to a theory of the distribution of competencies can already be found; attention is drawn in particularto the innovation of Johann Stephan Putter.