The Continuity and Discontinuity of the Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak Solution to the Minority Issue

Abstract

The issues of continuity and discontinuity are rather complex in case of the minorities’ legal status. The main focus of the paper is the transition from the monarchy to the republic in 1918. During the first Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) the legal status of minorities was substantially influenced by the traditions from the period of monarchy as these were used by the new state. The most extensive legal regulation of minorities’ status in Czech history existed in interwar Czechoslovakia.