House of Lords (Austria)

This article is about the Austrian House of Lords. For other uses, see House of Lords (disambiguation).

Austria's Parliament building in Vienna, seat of the House of Lords (1900)

The House of Lords (German: Herrenhaus, Czech: Panská sněmovna, Italian: Camera dei signori, Slovenian: Gosposka zbornica, Polish: Izba Panów) was the upper house of the Imperial Council, which was the legislature of Austria. Like the House of Deputies, it met in the Austrian Parliament Building. Bills could be introduced into either the House of Lords or the House of Deputies. Members of the Lords were also allowed to take on roles as government ministers. The House of Lords had its own support services, separate from the Deputies, including the House of Lords Library.

Unlike the elected House of Deputies, most new members of the House of Lords were appointed. Membership of the House of Lords was made up of Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal. There were a number of Lords Spiritual who sat in the house by virtue of their ecclesiastical role in the established Roman Catholic church, as well as Greek Catholic Church. The Lords Temporal made up the rest of the membership; of these, the majority were hereditary peers. A smaller number of life peers were appointed by the monarch on the nominal advice of the Minister-President, or on the advice of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. All archdukes of the imperial family also had a right to a seat.

Membership was a birthright of all hereditary peers. The number of members was not fixed.

The House of Lords scrutinised bills that had been approved by the House of Deputies and regularly reviewed and amended them. While it was unable to prevent bills passing into law, except in certain limited circumstances, it could delay them and force the Deputies to reconsider their decisions. In this capacity, the Lords acted as a check on the House of Deputies that was independent from the electoral process.

The Emperor's Speech was delivered in the Hofburg Palace during the State Opening of Parliament. The initial plan to hold the opening ceremonies in the atrium hall of the parliament building was not realised.

The Austrian House of Lords came to an end with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the end of World War I in 1918.

References

• Lanjus, Friedrich Graf. Die erbliche Reichsratswürde in Österreich. Selbstverlag, Schloss Haindorf am Kamp, Langenlois 1939.
• G. Stourzh. Die Entwicklung der ersten Kammer in der österreichischen Verfassung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Zeit von 1848-61. Dissertation, Vienna 1951.