Constitution of Austria - Judicial and Administrative Review

Judicial and Administrative Review

Federal and state judicial authority, in particular responsibility for judicial review of administrative acts, lies with the Administrative and Constitutional Court System, a structure essentially consisting of the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court. The Constitutional Court examines the constitutionality of laws passed by Parliament, the legality of regulations by Federal ministers and finally alleged infringements of constitutional rights of individuals through acts of the administration. It also tries disputes between the federation and its member states, demarcation disputes between other courts and impeachments of the federal president (serving as State Court in that matter.)

The Administrative Court tries all kinds of cases which involve ex officio decisions by public officials or bodies and which are not dealt with by the Constitutional Court. Note that only the Constitutional Court has the authority to strike down laws.

In recent years, an increasing number of tribunals of a judicial nature (article 133 point 4 B-VG) have been introduced in a number of areas to improve the review of the conduct of administrative authorities. The most important among them are the Länder independent administrative chambers (Unabhängige Verwaltungssenate - UVS), who decide, amongst other things, on second authority in proceedings relating to administrative contraventions as well as recourses against acts of direct exercise of command and constraint power from administrative authorities. Other such chambers are competent in the area of tax law (Unabhängiger Finanzsenat- UFS), in terms of asylum (Unabhängiger Bundesasylsenat - UBAS), in relation to environmental matters (Unabhängiger Umweltsenat) or in the field of telecommunications (Unabhängiger Bundeskommunikationssenat). Although all these tribunals are formally part of the administrative organization, their members have guarantees of independence and irremovability and may thus be compared to jurisdictions. Their rulings may be challenged before the Administrative or the Constitutional Court.

See also: Constitutional Court of Czechoslovakia

The Austrian constitution was the second in the world (after Czechoslovakia) to enact (in 1920) judicial review under what came to be known as the "Austrian system", where a separate constitutional court reviews legislative acts for their constitutionality. After the U.S. and Australia, where the regular court system is in charge of judicial review, Austria was the third country in the world to have judicial review at all (although the system was modeled after Czechoslovak one, the establishment of the Court itself predated the Czechoslovak Court by a couple of months). Many European countries adopted the Austrian system of review after World War II.