[Rezension zu Victor Freiherr von Ehmig: Gesetz vom 23. Juni 1881 betreffend den Handel mit gebrannten geistigen Getränken, den Ausschank und den Kleinverschleiss derselben]

Hermann von Schullern zu Schrattenhofen: Review of Ehmig’s Spirits-Law Compilation (1894)

Schullern’s brief review assesses Victor Freiherr von Ehmig’s compilation of the law of 23 June 1881 governing trade, serving, and retail sale of spirits, together with tax and implementing provisions. Its recommendation rests on a reformist premise: alcoholism threatens whole social classes, especially the peasantry, while existing legislation increasingly fails to restrain drunkenness.

The review moves from this social diagnosis to the state’s responsibility to intervene where unrestricted economic freedom endangers the community. Schullern presents the Austrian government proposals of 1887 and 1889 as responses to that responsibility, while allowing that particular provisions could be improved. His decisive move is to connect reform’s evaluation with knowledge of existing law:

Um ihre Tragweite genau beurtheilen und sie auf ihre Güte prüfen zu können, ist aber unter anderem auch die Kenntnis des geltenden Rechtszustandes nothwendig.

English translation: In order to be able to judge their scope precisely and to test their soundness, however, a knowledge of the prevailing state of the law is, among other things, also necessary.

Ehmig’s practical compilation matters because it supplies this prerequisite for informed judgment, not because Schullern attributes a new reform programme to it. The concluding endorsement makes legal clarification the book’s principal merit:

Dieser Anforderung entspricht nun das vorliegende Büchlein in trefflicher Weise, so dass es jedermann auf das wärmste empfohlen werden kann.

English translation: The little book before us meets this requirement in excellent fashion, so that it can be most warmly recommended to everyone.

The review thus places a legal reference work within contemporary debate over alcohol regulation and the limits of economic liberty.