Handelsrecht

Commercial Law, special private law (lex specialis) for merchants as opposed to civil law. Based on the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch HGB) of 1897 introduced in Austria on January 1, 1939. The Commercial Code not only regulates questions of the firm name, of commercial power of attorney and full power of attorney, partnerships (general and limited partnerships), dormant partnerships and accounting in accordance with the commercial code, but also questions of legal relations between merchants and their contracting partners; in general it is immaterial whether the contracting partner is also a merchant or not (unilateral commercial transactions, section 345 of the Commercial Code). Many areas of commercial law are covered by special legislation, such as company law (regulating private and public limited companies, cooperative societies, etc.), law on securities (regulating bills of exchange, cheques, etc.), law on transportation, banking and insurance law. Special legislation also regulates the activities of commercial agents and brokers.

Literature: R. Holzhammer, Allgemeines Handelsrecht und Wertpapierrecht, ⁴1993; H. Krejci, Grundriß des Handelsrechts, 1994.