“For Where the Two are not One but Two, the Two cannot be Called by the Same Name, but by the Name of Both”

Was the Swedish-Norwegian Union a Model for the Austro-Hungarian Dualist State Relationship?

Abstract

During the existence of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, the question of the legal relationship between Austria and Hungary and the nature of the state union divided the domestic and Austrian constitutional legal theorists and politicians. The Monarchy was for the most characterised by legal scholars and politicians of the time as a real union, which even raised the possibility of parallels with the Swedish-Norwegian Union. This study aims to briefly examine the analogies and differences between the two state unions, and the possible pattern shifts in the regulation of constitutional legal institutions, with a particular focus on the organisation of the common foreign service and the official designation of the state union.