Obituary for em. Univ.Prof. Dr. Christian Nowotny

On June 20, 2023 Christian Nowotny passed away. He had a unique understanding of combining jurisprudence, economics and legal practice. With around 350 publications, Christian Nowotny particularly enriched Austrian corporate law. With his habilitation on the role of accounting in commercial and corporate law, he was probably the first Austrian academic to deal with accounting issues from the perspective of corporate law. His commentaries on the stock corporation's board of directors and on limited liabilities companies law are also fundamental. In addition, Christian Nowotny dealt with issues of contract drafting at an early stage, for example in the context of the Wiener Vertragshandbuch ("Vienna Contract Handbook"), which he co-edited. He furthermore, passed on his knowledge and vast experience in this regard to several generations of students in the legendary lecture at the WU on the practice of contract drafting. Christian Nowotny combined stupendous, detailed and always up-to-date knowledge of the state of the art of law and jurisprudence with an unmatched ability to immediately identify the core of a legal problem and find solutions that remained hidden from others. This made him a sought-after expert whose analyses and opinions were always on point and carried great weight and persuasiveness.

Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family, especially his wife, daughter and grandson. DSC will miss Christian Nowotny, who worked for for our firm as an associate for several years in the early 1980s and continued to provide advice and support to us for many years thereafter. Adieu, dear Christian Nowotny!