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The Austrian Legal System and Laws: a Brief Overview
by Johannes Oehlboeck and Immanuel Gerstner,
published on GlobaLex,
June 2005 (GlobaLex is an electronic legal publication dedicated
to international and foreign law research. Published by the
Hauser Global Law School Program at NYU School of Law)
1. Introduction
2. Austrian Legal System
3. Legal Resources
4.
Further Information
3. Legal Resources
3.1 Online
3.1.1 The Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria (RIS)
The Legal Information System of
the Republic of Austria (RIS) is a computer-assisted information
system on Austrian law, which is coordinated and operated by the
Austrian Federal Chancellery. Its beginnings date back to 1983
when the essential features of the system were designed. After
federal legislation had been incorporated into the system,
decisions of the supreme courts started to be included. A
section of the Legal Information System offers a selection of
important Austrian laws in English translation.
The Legal Information System contains the following databases:
Federal Law Gazette (Bundesgesetzblatt), Draft bill, Government
bill, Federal law, State Law Gazette, Municipal law, European
Community Law, Case-law documentations, Instruction edicts,
Instruction edicts of the Federal Ministry of Justice, and
Austrian laws in English.
The federal law database covers 99% of Austrian federal law.
Amendments are incorporated as soon as they are promulgated so
that the database always contains the applicable version of a
document (one document: 1 section or 1 article or 1 annex). In
addition to the applicable version, many norms also offer the
opportunity to access previous versions, making it possible for
the user to reconstruct the development of the regulation.
As a result of the cooperation with the office of the State
(regional) government, the State Law Gazette contains all issues
of the State Law Gazette in their original versions of the
Austrian Provinces. The Municipal law database contains the laws
of some Austrian municipalities. The database also contains
selected municipal laws of Austrian Provinces.
The European Community Law Database (CELEX) contains the
European Community law. The Austrian Federal Chancellery
receives the data from The Office for Official Publications of
the European Communities. The CELEX database is made up of the
following sections: treaties, external relations, secondary
legislation, complementary legislation, preparatory works, case
law, national measures, parliamentary questions, consolidated
texts (at present time there are no documents available),
official journals (C-series), and EFTA documents.
Case-law is now a third key component of the Legal Information
System. The databases contain both the legal principles and the
full text of the rulings. The database contains the case-law of
the Constitutional Court (nearly all rulings since 1980), the
Administrative Court (comprises nearly all its decisions since
1990; substantial rulings are also available from previous years),
of the Supreme Court (decisions of civil and criminal law), the
Independent Administrative Tribunals (selected rulings since
1991), the Independent Federal Asylum Board (selected rulings
since 1998), the Environmental Senate, the Procurement Review
Authorities (rulings of the Federal Public Procurement Review
Authority, the Federal Public Procurement Arbitration Body since
1997 and the Procurement Review Authorities of Salzburg and
Vienna since 2004), the Data Protection Commission, the Federal
Communications Board, the Appeals Tribunal and Supreme
Disciplinary Commission (case-law on disciplinary matters and
matters pertaining to employee transfers in the Federal
Government since 1999) and the Supervisory Tribunal for
Employees' Representation (case law on matters of employees'
representation).
3.1.2 Further Online Resources
-
Austrian Parliament
- official drafts and information ("Materialien") from the
legislative process
-
Austrian Constitutional Court
-
Austrian Administrative Court
-
Telekom-Control Commission, KommAustria and
RTR-GmbH
Austrian Regulatory Authority for Broadcasting and
Telecommunications
-
Federal Ministry of Transport,
Innovation and Technology
-
Data Protection Commission
-
Federal Chancellery
-
www.help.gv.at
- Guide for Austrian authorities, offices and institutions,
parts in English
-
Rechtsfreund.at
- This website provides information on all parts of Austrian
law, more than 20 notes on legal issues and a selection of
model contracts. It offers various calculation programs such
as the calculation of attorney and notary fees and the
calculation of the sizeable
exempt amounts and introduces the most important recent law
books. In addition, the website
http://www.rechtsfreund.at/law-austria.htm
provides extensive information on Austrian Law in English (the
latest books on Austrian law in English are listed on
http://www.rechtsfreund.at/books-austrian-law.htm).
-
SWK Online
- SWK Online is the electronic edition of the leading
professional magazine for Austrian Tax Law and Business Law.
This magazine is published three times monthly and informs
entrepreneurs, consultants, employees of tax authorities and
other civil services, as well as employees in financial
accounting, about current legal questions, changes in
legislation and higher-court jurisdiction in the
aforementioned legal field. It is independent and only
indebted to its readership.
SWK
online includes professional articles that can be easily put
into practice in business affairs. The authors are economic
trustees, experts from federal ministries and universities,
tax authorities as well as managers in private industry.
-
Rechtsdatenbank
- With the creation of the Legal Database in 1986, the first
milestone for electronic legal information in Austria was laid.
The RDB, working together with every Austrian legal publisher,
offers the largest selection of legal information currently
available in database form. As an independent organisation,
the RDB is able to bring together in one single platform
professional journals from 27 different publishers together
with all information currently contained in the RIS database.
RDB subscribers are able to search in Austria's most
comprehensive on-line database of court practice, proceedings
and literature. Every user of the RDB portal not only has
access to the more than 1.9 million documents that comprise
the central RBD database, but also access to 14 additional
partner databases. The documents on the RDB database sometimes
extend as far back as 1946.
-
Arge Daten - Austrian Society for Data
Protection
- Information about data
protection and data security in Austria
-
www.asok.at
- ASoKonline is
the internet version of the "Arbeits- und Sozialrechtskartei",
one of Austria's leading journals regarding Labour and Social
Security Law issues. The online database offers all articles
and court decisions published in the aforementioned journal,
beginning with the January 1998 issue until present, a
collection of Austrian labour laws, as well as regular news on
the subject to subscribers.
-
internet4jurists.at
- Legal problems of the internet,
many decisions (IT-law)
-
Austrian Bar Association
-
Information Technology-law
- Publications on
internet and telecommunication law
-
Federal Competition Authority
- Includes
information on Austrian Merger Notification and Procedure
-
www.jurbooks.at
- Legal bookshop
online
-
www.jusline.at
- Portal for
comprehensive legal information and e-law services (e.g.:
cadastral register, commercial register, electronic access
records, trade register, data of the registry office); further
information
found here.
-
www.amtskalender.com
- Database with information about all Austrian authorities
-
www.lexisnexis.at
- The database
"Recht Online" (Law Online) provides access to legal
information (civil law, labour law, business law, criminal law
and tax law)
3.2 Offline
3.2.1 Printed Legal Resources (in English)
3.2.2 Libraries
3.2.3 Legal Publishers
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