MC Ius Commune Moot Court – The Imperial Aulic Council

The Ius Commune Moot Court – The Imperial Aulic Council is a teaching instrument developed at the Law Faculty of the University of Vienna. Its primary ambition is to acquaint the students with the early modern Ius Commune, a legal order characterized by normative and jurisdictional pluralism. It provides an opportunity to get to know the dynamics of a legal order – in many respects the exact opposite of how, at least ideally, the modern legal systems of Continental Europe, which have a written constitution and a civil code, whether it is the French Code Civil, the Austrian ABGB or the German BGB, at their core, operate. In addition, the students acquire in depth knowledge, depending on the case, of several aspects of early modern legal history. Like other moot courts the Ius Commune Moot Court – The Imperial Aulic Council provides the students with an opportunity to enhance their rhetorical abilities, their English language skills and their capacity for team work.
The Ius Commune MC is concerned with "law in action", with the application of Roman Law, Canon Law and the great variety of particular laws that existed in early modern Europe, rather than with "law in the books". The jurisdiction of the Imperial Aulic Council, one, if not the most important court in the world of the Ius Commune and located in Vienna for most of the time of its existence serves as a point of reference. Since the Ius Commune MC is a by-product of the research project „The Jewish Cases of the Imperial Aulic Council“ the case assigments are usually modelled on cases explored within the framework of this long-term project, which means that one of the parties tends to be a Jewish individual or a Jewish community.