Why Did the Austrian General Civil Code Remain “in Application” in Transylvania After the Compromise?

Abstract

The article examines why the Austrian General Civil Code (ABGB) continued to apply in Transylvania after the Compromise and the Union (1867–1868), notwithstanding the restoration of political unity. Following Ferenc Raffay, it outlines the “territorial fragmentation” of private law: while in Hungary the ABGB was abrogated in 1861 and historical Hungarian private law prevailed, in Transylvania the ABGB, introduced in 1853, remained in force – indeed into the 1940s – even after the change of sovereignty. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the government “temporarily” maintained the law then in force in Transylvania, producing a dualism in private law: historical Hungarian law in Hungary, the ABGB in Transylvania. In the 1868 parliamentary debate, Transylvanian deputies (Teleki, Tisza, Gál) pressed for immediate legal unification, but the government (Nárai Szabó) deferred the decision, invoking the imminent adoption of a civil code. As a consequence, a distinct Transylvanian variant of
the ABGB emerged, and unification of private law never materialized.