April Laws


The April Laws, also called March Laws, were a collection of laws legislated by Lajos Kossuth with the aim of modernizing the Kingdom of Hungary into a parliamentary democracy, nation state. The imperative program included Hungarian control of its popular national guard, national budget and Hungarian foreign policy, as well as the removal of serfdom. They were passed by the Hungarian Diet in March 1848 in Pozsony and signed by king Ferdinand V at the Primate's Palace in the same city on 11 April 1848, In 1848, the new young Austrian monarch Francis Joseph arbitrarily "revoked" the laws without any legal competence. Hungary did not retain full external autonomy until the Compromise of 1867 which would later influence Hungary's position in World War I. During the negotiations of the Austro-Hungarian compromise in 1867, the April Laws of the revolutionary parliament were accepted by Francis Joseph.

Twelve Points

The conservatives - who usually opposed most of the reforms - could maintain a slim majority in the old feudal parliament, the reformer liberals were divided between the ideas of Széchenyi and Kossuth.
Immediately before the elections, however, Deák succeeded in reuniting all the Liberals on the common platform of "The Twelve Points". The so-called "Twelve Points" of reformers became the ruling principles of the April laws.