Private Law in Transylvania as Part of the Habsburg Monarchy

Abstract

In the course of our following study, we present the transformation of feudal institutions of private law in force in Transylvania in the early modern period and their modernization during the time when this historical region was under the control of the Habsburg Monarchy both in its absolutist (imperial) and dualist forms. We show that the sources of private law in this period were initially those enacted during the Middle Ages, which were gradually updated by the enlightened absolutist Habsburg rulers, resulting in norms fit for the bourgeois period of capitalist development at the end of the 19th century. We observe that law applicable to legal capacity and its exercise by natural persons and to families gradually developed to undo the feudal bonds and incapacities prevalent during the Middle Ages. The same was true for property law, as well as the law which governed inheritance. Also, a previously less significant field of law, commercial law, evolved spectacularly in this era, creating the framework for modern economic exchange, vibrant trade, and security of credit. The perspectives of Romanian legal history literature regarding this era are also presented.