History
... of the development of regional legislature - Summary
Tyrolean "Landstände" (Estates), today’s "Landtag" (Tyrolean Parliament), were first formulated in the Tyrolean Regional Constitution of Count Meinhard II (1258-1295). Written record was made in the great Charter of Liberty of 28 January 1342. There were four Estates – senior clergy, nobles, burghers and farmers.
The name "Landschaft" (region) was first used for Estates in 1363 when the Tyrol passed to the Habsburgs.
Parliaments were frequently held in the 15th and 16th centuries. After 1650, it was rare for Parliament as a whole to meet. Never once was a Parliament convened in the age of absolutism – a session being held again in 1790. The Estates were again permitted after the Napoleonic wars in 1816. But it was not until the 1848 constitution that Parliament was given a new lease of life as a representative body of elected parties.
After the First World War, on 8 November 1921, the new Tyrolean Constitution established that Parliament was a legislative body. And on 15 June 1946, after the Second World War, a new Tyrolean Regional Constitution was adopted.