Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana

The penal code established a unified criminal law and criminal procedure law in the Habsburg-ruled countries of Austria and Bohemia.

In Hungary, Belgium and Lombardy, however, the law did not apply.

[2][3] When the code was issued, the jurist and thinker Joseph von Sonnenfels criticized the continued use of torture and capital punishment.

Maria Theresa allowed him to exercise his academic freedom in this case, even if she sided against the jurist in another instance.

[4] Capital punishment would be abolished by the Constitutio Criminalis Josephina under Joseph II in 1787 (he had stopped using the punishment in practice since 1781 though).