Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs 12. Jahrgang Heft 1/2022, pp. 61-77, 2022/03/28
This paper is concerned with an aspect of popular legal literature present from the 18th to the 20th century, with particularregard to Austria. Its focus, in an attempt of systematisation, is on a specific form of legal literature, namelylegal catechisms, which were temporarily popular as a means of conveying legal knowledge. The importance of legalknowledge was oftentimes explicitly stated and was further implied in the name of “catechism”, which evokes a parallelismbetween legal and religious rules. However, material references to religious catechisms were rare and legalcatechisms were not used as a base for school classes on law. While not a distinct type of popular legal literature,catechisms appeared since the enlightenment, first addressing a rather elite audience, but with a focus on the theoreticeducation of citizens. After 1945, the term catechism was no longer used to describe books in the format ofquestions and answers that had once characterized catechisms to the point of synonymity.
Keywords: Constitutional Catechisms;History of Legal Literature;Legal Catechisms;Popular Legal Literature
