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Austrian Civil Code

National Civil and Private Law Codes

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The Austrian Civil Code, known in German as the Allgemeines burgerliches Gesetzbuch or ABGB, is Austria's general civil code. It was published on 1 June 1811 after some forty years of preparatory work and came into force on 1 January 1812, with Karl Anton Freiherr von Martini and Franz von Zeiller as its principal drafters at different stages. The code was shaped by Enlightenment ideals of freedom and equality before the law, comparable in spirit to the Napoleonic Code, and it followed the three-part structure inherited from Roman law before being modernized during the First World War. It remains Austria's basic civil code today and also serves as the civil code of Liechtenstein, and its framework influenced the successor states of Austria-Hungary, with some of its provisions remaining in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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