Austria - Constitution
Adopted in: 1929 }
{ ICL Document Status:
1 July 1983 }
Article
1 [Republic, Democracy]
Austria is a democratic
republic.. Its law emanates from the people.
Article
2 [Federal State]
(1) Austria is a federal
state.
(2) The Federal State is
composed of the autonomous States of Burgenland, Carinthia, Lower Austria,
Upper Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tirol, Vorarlberg, and Vienna.
Article
3 [Territory]
(1) The federal territory
comprises the territories of the Federal States.
(2) A change in the federal
territory, which is at the same time a change in State territory, just
as the change of a State boundary within federal territory, can, apart
from peace treaties, only be effected by corresponding constitutional laws
of the Federation and the State whose territory undergoes change.
Article
4 [Currency, Customs]
(1) The federal territory
constitutes a uniform currency, economic, and customs area.
(2) Intermediate customs
barriers or other traffic restrictions may not be established within federal
territory.
Article
5 [Capital]
(1) The federal capital
and seat of the highest federal authorities is Vienna.
(2) For the duration of
extraordinary circumstances the Federal President can, at the request of
the Federal Government, remove the seat of the highest federal authorities
elsewhere in federal territory.
Article
7 [Equality, Political Rights]
(1) All federal nationals
are equal. before the law. Privileges based upon birth, sex, estate, class,
or religion are excluded.
(2) Public employees, including
members of the Federal Army, are guaranteed the unrestricted exercise of
their political rights.
Article
8 [Official Language]
German is the official language
of the Republic without prejudice to the rights provided by federal law
for linguistic minorities.
Article
8a [State Colors, Flag, Coat of Arms, Seal]
(1) The colors of the Republic
of Austria are red-white-red. The flag consists of three identically broad
horizontal stripes of which the intermediate is white the upper and the
lower are red.
(2) The federal Coat of
Arms. consists of an unfettered single-headed, black, gilt-armed and red-tongued
eagle on whose breast is imposed a red shield intersected by a silver crosspiece.
On its head, the eagle bears a mural crown with three visible merlons.
A sundered iron chain rings both talons. The right holds a golden sickle
with inward turned blade, the left a golden hammer.
(3) Detailed provisions,
in particular as to safeguard of the colors, the coat of arms, and the
seal of the Republic, are settled by federal law.
Article
9 [International Law, Transfer of Powers]
(1) The generally recognized
rules of international law are regarded as integral parts of federal law.
(2) Legislation or a treaty
requiring sanction in accordance with Article 50 (1)
can transfer specific federal competencies to intergovernmental organizations
and their authorities and can within the framework of international law
regulate the activity of foreign states' agents inside Austria as well
as the activity of Austrian agents abroad.
Article
9a [Defence, Military Service]
(1) Austria subscribes to
universal national defence. Its task is to preserve the federal territory's
outside independence as well as its inviolability and its unity, especially
as regards the maintenance and defence of permanent neutrality. In this
connection, too, the constitutional establishments and their capacity to
function as well as the democratic freedoms of residents require to be
safeguarded and defended against acts of armed attack from outside.
(2) Universal national defence
comprises military, intellectual, civil, and economic national defence.
(3) Every male Austrian
national is liable for military service.. Conscientious objectors who refuse
the fulfillment of compulsory military service and are exonerated therefrom
must perform an alternative service. The details are settled by law.
Article
10 [Federal Legislation and Execution]
(1) The Federation has powers
of legislation. and execution in the following matters:
1. the Federal Constitution,
in particular elections to the House of Representatives, and referenda
as provided by the Federal Constitution; the Constitutional Court;
2. external affairs, including
political and economic representation with regard to other countries and
in particular the conclusion of international treaties of all kinds, demarcation
of frontiers; trade in goods and livestock with other countries; customs;
3. regulation and control
of entry into and exit from the federal territory; immigration and emigration;
passports; deportation, turning back at the frontier, expulsion, and extradition
from or through the federal territory;
4. federal finances, in
particular taxes to be collected exclusively or in part on behalf of the
Federation; monopolies;
5. the monetary, credit,
stock exchange and banking system; the weights and measures, standards,
and hallmark system;
6. civil law, including
the rules relating to economic association, but excluding regulations which
render real property transactions with aliens subject to restrictions by
the administrative authorities; criminal law, excluding administrative
penal law and administrative penal procedure in matters which fall within
the autonomous sphere of competence of the States; administration of justice;
establishments, such as compulsory labor and similar institutions, for
the protection of society against criminal, degenerate or otherwise dangerous
elements; the Administrative Court; copyright; Press affairs; expropriation
for the purposes of urban and rural reclamation, reconditioning, restoration;
expropriation in so far as it does not concern matters falling within the
autonomous sphere of competence of the States, matters of notaries, lawyers,
and related professions;
7. the maintenance of peace,
order and security, excluding the local public safety administration; the
right of association and assembly; matters of personal status, including
the registration of births, marriages and deaths, and change of name; aliens
police and residence registration; matters of weapons, ammunition and explosives,
and the use of fire-arms;
8. matters of trade and
industry; public advertising and commercial brokerage; restraint of unfair
competition; patent matters and the protection of designs, trade marks,
and other commodity descriptions; matters of patent agents; matters of
civil engineering; chambers of commerce, trade, and industry; establishment
of professional associations in so far as they extend to the federal territory
as a whole, but with the exception of those in the field of agriculture
and forestry;
9. the traffic system relating
to the railways, aviation, and shipping in so far as the last of these
does not fall under Article 11; motor traffic; matters,
with exception of the highway police, which concern roads declared by federal
law as federal highways on account of their importance for transit traffic;
river and navigation police in so far as these do not fall under Article
11; the postal, telegraph, and telephone system;
10. mining; forestry, including
timber flotage; water rights; control and conservation of waters for the
safe diversion of floods or for shipping and raft transport; regulation
of torrents; construction and maintenance of waterways regulation and standardization
of electrical plants and establishments as well as safety measures in this
field; provisions of electric power transmission in so far as the transmission
extends over two or more States, matters of steam- and other power-driven
engines; surveying;
11. labor legislation in
so far as it does not fall under Article 12; social
and contractual insurance; chambers for workers and salaried employees
with the exception of those relating to agriculture and forestry;
12. public health with the
exception of burial and disposal of the dead and community sanitation and
first aid services, but only sanitary supervision with respect to hospitals,
nursing homes, health resorts and natural curative resources; measures
to counter factors hazardous to the environment through the transcendence
of input limits, veterinary affairs; nutrition affairs, including foodstuffs
inspection;
13. archive and library
services for the sciences and specialist purposes; matters of federal collections
and establishments serving the arts and sciences, all matters of the federal
theaters not however including the settlement of their structural alignment
and level nor the treatment accorded by the official building authorities
to constructions which concern surface elements in such edifices; the preservation
of monuments; religious affairs; census as well as, allowing for the rights
of the States to engage within their own territory in every kind of statistical
activity, other statistics in so far as they do not serve the interests
of one State only; endowments and foundations when their purposes extend
beyond a single State's sphere of interests and they have hitherto not
been autonomously administered by the States;
14. organization and conduct
of the federal police and the federal gendarmerie; settlement of the conditions
of establishment and organization of other protective forces, including
their armament and the right to make use of their weapons;
15. military affairs; matters
of war damage and welfare measures for combatants and their surviving dependents;
care of war graves; whatever measures seem necessary by reason or in consequence
of war to ensure the uniform conduct of economic affairs, in particular
with regard to the population's supply with essentials;
16. the establishment of
federal authorities and other federal agencies; service code for and staff
representation rights of federal employees; and
17. population policy in
so far as it concerns the grant of children's allowances and the organization
of burden equalization on behalf of families.
(2) In federal laws on the
right of succession to undivided farm estate as well as in federal laws
promulgated in accordance with Paragraph (1) no.10, State legislatures
can be empowered to issue implementing provisions with respect to individual
provisions which must be specifically designated. The provisions of Article
15 (6) shall be analogously applied to these State
laws. Execution of the implementing laws issued in such cases lies with
the Federation, but the enabling ordinances, in so far as they relate to
the implementing provisions of the State law, need foregoing agreement
with the State government concerned.
(3) The Federation must
allow the States opportunity to present their views before its conclusion
of treaties which within the meaning of Article 1
render necessary enabling measures or affect the autonomous sphere of competence
of the States in another way.
Article
11 [Federal Legislation and State Execution]
(1) In the following matters
legislation is the business of the Federation, execution that of the States:
1. nationality and right
of citizenship;
2. professional associations
in so far as they do not fall under Article 10, but
with the exception of those in the field of agriculture and forestry;
3. national housing affairs;
4. highway police;
5. sanitation; and
6. inland shipping as regards
shipping licenses, shipping facilities and compulsory measures of such
facilities in so far as it does not apply to the Danube, Lake Constance,
Lake Neusiedl, and boundary stretches of other frontier waters.
(2) In so far as a need
for the issue of uniform regulations is considered to exist, the administrative
procedure the general provisions of administrative penal law, the administrative
penal procedure and the administrative execution also in matters where
legislation lies with the States in particular also in matters of taxation,
are prescribed by federal law; divergent regulations can be made in Federal
or State laws settling the individual spheres of administration only when
they are requisite for regularization of the matter in hand.
(3) Enabling ordinances
to the federal laws promulgated in accordance with Paragraphs (1) and (2)
shall be issued, save as otherwise provided in these laws, by the Federation.
The manner of publication for enabling ordinances whose issue by the States
in matters concerning Paragraph (1) no.4 and 6 is empowered by federal
law can be prescribed by federal law.
(4) The application of the
laws promulgated pursuant to Paragraph (2) and the enabling ordinances
issued hereto lies with the Federation or the States, depending on whether
the business which forms the subject of the procedure is a matter for execution
by the Federation or the States.
(5) In proceedings before
the administrative authorities the final decision on administrative contraventions
lies with administrative penal tribunals to be constituted within the framework
of the competent authorities. The members of these tribunals are independent
in the exercise of their office and not bound by any instructions. The
senior official of the authority concerned or a deputy delegated by him,
who must have legal training, presides. The Federation appoints two members
also in cases where the tribunals have not been constituted within the
framework of the federal authorities. Acting on applications from the administrative
penal tribunals, the State-Governors are competent to exercise the right
of pardon provided for by law where penal administrative business arises
under the indirect federal administration, the State Governments in matters
of the autonomous sphere of competence of the States. Details regarding
the establishment of administrative penal tribunals and their activity
will be prescribed by federal law.
Article
12 [Federal Framework Legislation]
(1) In the following matters,
framework legislation is the business of the Federation, the issue of implementing
laws and execution the business of the States:
1. social welfare; population
policy in so far as it does not fall under Article 10;
public social and welfare establishments; maternity, infant, and adolescent
welfare; hospitals and nursing homes; requirements to be imposed for health
reasons on health resorts, sanatoria, and health establishments; natural
curative resources;
2. public institutions for
the adjustment of disputes out of court;
3. land reform, in particular
land consolidation measures and resettlement;
4. the protection of plants
against diseases and pests;
5. matters of electric power
in so far as they do not fall under Art. 10; and
6. labor legislation and
the protection of workers and employees in so far as it is a matter of
workers and employees engaged in agriculture and forestry.
(2) In matters of land reform
the final decision and that at State level lies with tribunals composed
of a chairman and judges, administrative officials, and experts the tribunal
qualified to pronounce final judgment will be appointed within the framework
of the competent Federal Ministry. The organization, the duties and the
procedure of the tribunals as well as the principles for the organization
of other authorities concerned with matters of land reform will be prescribed
by federal law. This shall provide that the decisions by the tribunals
are not subject to repeal and change by way of administrative ruling; the
exclusion of ordinary appeal from the authority of first instance to the
State jurisdiction is inadmissible.
(3) If and inasmuch as the
rulings of State authorities in matters of electric power deviate from
one another or a State Government was the sole competent State authority,
the competence in such a matter passes, provided a party so demands within
the deadline to be fixed by federal law, to the Federal Ministry competent
in the business. As soon as the Ministry has reached a decision, the rulings
hitherto made by the State authorities are invalidated.
Article
13 [Taxation]
The competencies of the
Federation and the States in the field of taxation will be prescribed in
a special federal constitutional law.
Article
14 [Education]
(1) Save as provided otherwise
in the following paragraphs, legislation and execution in the field of
schooling and in the field of education in matters of pupil and student
hostels are the business of the Federation. The matters settled in Article
14a do not belong to schooling and education within
the meaning of this Article.
(2) Save as provided otherwise
by Paragraph (4)(a), legislation is the business of the Federation, execution
the business of the States in matters of the service code for and staff
representation rights of teachers at public compulsory schools. Such federal
laws can empower State legislatures to issue implementing provisions to
individual provisions which shall be precisely specified; in these instances
the provisions of Article 15 (6) apply analogously.
The enabling ordinances in respect of such federal laws, save as provided
otherwise herein, shall be issued by the Federation.
(3) In the following matters
framework legislation is the business of the Federation, the issue of implementing
laws and execution the business of the States:
a) composition and disposition,
including their members' appointment and remuneration, of the boards to
be constituted in the States and political Districts as part of the federal
school authorities;
b) framework organization
(structure, organizational forms, establishment, maintenance, dissolution,
local districts, sizes of classes and instruction periods) of public compulsory
schools;
c) framework organization
of publicly maintained student hostels provided exclusively or mainly for
pupils of compulsory schools; and
d) professional employment
qualifications for kindergarten teachers and educational assistants to
be employed by the States, Counties, or County Associations at the centers
and student hostels provided exclusively or mainly for pupils of compulsory
schools.
(4) In the following matters
legislation and execution is the business of the States:
a) competence of officials,
on the basis of laws promulgated pursuant to Paragraph (2), to exercise
official responsibility over teachers at public compulsory schools; the
States laws shall provide that the federal school authorities in the States
and political Districts must participate in appointments, other selections
for service positions, and awards as well as in eligibility and disciplinary
proceedings. The participation in appointments, other selections for service
positions, and awards shall at all events comprise a right of nomination
on the part of the primary level federal school authority;
b) the kindergarten system
and the centers system.
(5) In the following matters
legislation and execution are, in deviation from the provisions of Paragraphs
(2) to (4), the business of the Federation:
a) public demonstration
schools, demonstration kindergartens, demonstration centers, and demonstration
student hostels attached to a public school for the purpose of practical
instruction as provided by the curriculum;
b) publicly maintained student
hostels intended exclusively or mainly for pupils of the demonstration
schools mentioned in Sub-Paragraph (a); and
c) the service code for
and staff representation rights of teachers, educational assistants, and
kindergarten teachers at the public institutions mentioned in Sub-Paragraphs
(a) and (b).
(6) Public schools are those
schools which are established and maintained by authorities so required
by law. The Federation is the authority so required by law in so far as
legislation and execution in matters of the establishment, maintenance,
and dissolution of public schools are the business of the Federation. The
State or, according to the statutory provisions, the County, or a County
Association is the authority so required by law in so far as legislation
or implementing legislation and execution in matters of establishment,
maintenance and dissolution of public schools are the business of the State.
Admission to public school is open to all without distinction of birth,
sex race, status, class, language and religion, and in other respects within
the limits of the statutory requirements. The same applies analogously
to kindergartens, centers, and student hostels.
(7) Private schools are
different from public schools; they shall be accorded public status according
to the statutory provisions.
(8) The Federation is entitled,
in matters which in accordance with Paragraphs (2) and (3) belong to execution
by the States, to obtain confirmation about adherence to the laws and ordinances
issued on the basis of these paragraphs and can for this purpose delegate
officials to the schools and student hostels. Should shortcomings be observed,
the State-Governor can be instructed (Article 20 (1))
to redress the shortcomings within an appropriate deadline. The State-Governor
must see to the redress of the shortcomings according to the statutory
provisions and, to effect the execution of such instructions, is bound
also to employ the means at his disposal in his capacity as an authority
acting on behalf of the State in its autonomous sphere of competence.
(9) The general rules in
Articles 10 and 21 as to the
distribution of competencies for legislation and execution regarding conditions
of service with the Federation, the States, the Counties, and the County
Associations apply in respect of the service code for teachers, educational
assistants, and kindergarten teachers, save as provided otherwise by the
preceding paragraphs. The same applies to the staff representation rights
of teachers, educational assistants, and kindergarten teachers.
(10) In matters of the school
authorities of the Federation in the States and political Districts, compulsory
schooling, school organization, private schools, and the relationship between
school and the Churches including religious instruction at school, the
House of Representatives, in so far as matters of universities and fine
arts academies are not concerned, can adopt federal legislation only in
the presence of at least half the members and by a two thirds majority
of the votes cast. The same applies to the ratification of treaties negotiated
on these matters and which fall into the category specified in Article
50.
Article
14a [State Legislation and Execution, Exceptions]
(1) Save as provided otherwise
in the following paragraphs, legislation and execution are the business
of the States with regard to agricultural and forestry schooling as well
as with regard to agricultural and forestry education in matters of student
hostels, and in matters of the service code for and staff representation
rights of teachers and educational assistants at the schools and student
hostels falling under this Article. Matters of university training do not
fall under agricultural and forestry schooling.
(2) Legislation and execution
is the business of the Federation in the following matters:
a) secondary agricultural
and forestry schools and schools for the training and supplementary training
of teachers at agricultural and forestry schools;
b) technical colleges for
the training of forestry employees;
c) public agricultural and
forestry technical colleges linked organizationally with one of the public
schools mentioned in Sub-Paragraphs (a) and (b) or with a federal agricultural
and forestry research institute to ensure provision of the demonstrations
scheduled in the curricula;
d) student hostels exclusively
or mainly designated for pupils of the schools mentioned in Sub-Paragraphs
(a) to (c);
e) service code for and
staff representational rights of the teachers and educational assistants
in the establishments mentioned in Sub-Paragraphs (a) to (d) above;
f) subsidies for staff expenditure
of the denominational agricultural and forestry schools; and
g) federal agricultural
and forestry institutes linked organizationally with an agricultural and
forestry school supported by the Federation to ensure provision of the
demonstrations scheduled in the curricula of these schools.
(3) Save as it concerns
matters mentioned in Paragraph (2), legislation is the business of the
Federation, execution the business of the States in matters of
a) religious instruction
and
b) the service code for
and staff representation rights of teachers at public agricultural and
forestry vocational schools and technical colleges and of educational assistants
at publicly maintained student hostels exclusively or mainly designated
for pupils of these schools, excepting however matters of official competence
for the exercise of the service prerogative over these teachers and educational
assistants. State legislatures can be authorized in federal laws promulgated
by reason of the provisions under Sub-Paragraph (b) to issue implementing
provisions for individual regulations which shall be precisely specified,
in this connection the provisions of Article 15 (6)
apply analogously. Enabling ordinances for the federal laws shall, save
as otherwise provided there, be issued by the Federation.
(4) Framework legislation
is the business of the Federation, the issue of implementing laws and execution
is the business of the States:
a) as regards the agricultural
and forestry vocational schools in matters of definitions of t,he instructional
objective, the obligatory subjects, and free tuition as well as in matters
of compulsory schooling and the transfer from the school in one State to
the school in another State;
b) as regards the agricultural
and forestry technical colleges in matters of the definition of admission
prerequisites, instructional objective, organizational forms, extent of
the teaching and obligatory subjects, free tuition, and the transfer from
the school in one State to the school in another State;
c) in matters of the public
status of private agricultural and forestry vocational schools and training
colleges with the exception of schools falling under para. 2 sub-para.
b above; and
d) as regards the organization
and competence of advisory boards who in the matters of Paragraph (1) participate
in the execution by the States.
(5) The establishment of
the agricultural and forestry technical colleges and research institutes
specified under Paragraph (2)(c) and (g) is only admissible if the State
government of the State in which the vocational school or technical college
is to have its location has agreed to the establishment. This agreement
is not requisite if the establishment concerns an agricultural and forestry
school which is to be organizationally linked to a school for the training
and supplementary training of teachers and agricultural and forestry schools
to ensure provision of the demonstrations scheduled in their curricula.
(6) It lies within the competence
of the Federation to see to the observance of the regulations issued by
it in matters whose execution in accordance with Paragraphs (3) and (4)
belongs to the States.
(7) The provisions of Article
14 (6), (7), and (9) analogously also apply for the
spheres specified in the first sentence of Paragraph (1).
(8) federal laws on matters
pursuant to Paragraph (4) can be passed by the House of Representatives
only ill the presence of at least half the members and by a two thirds
majority of the votes cast.
Article
15 [General Competence of the States]
(1) In so far as a matter
is not expressly assigned by the Federal Constitution to the Federation
for legislation or also execution, it remains within the States' autonomous
sphere of competence.
(2) In matters of local
public safety administration, i.e., that part of public safety administration
which exclusively or preponderantly affects the interests of the local
community personified by the County and which, like preservation of public
decency and defence against the improper creation of noise, can suitably
be undertaken by the community within its local boundaries, the Federation
has authority to supervise the conduct of these matters by the County and
to redress any observed shortcomings by instructions to the State-Governor.
Inspectoral authorities of the Federation can for this purpose be delegated
to the County; in each and every case the State-Governor shall be informed
hereof.
(3) The provisions of States
legislation in matters of theaters and cinemas, public shows, performances,
and entertainments shall assign to the federal public safety administration
within its local sphere of competence at least the superintendence of the
events, in so far as this does not extend to technical operation, building
police, and fire police considerations, and the participation by the administration
in the initial stage of grant of licenses as stipulated by such legislation.
(4) To what extent the federal
public safety administration shall within its local sphere of competence
be assigned executive responsibility in the domain of the highway police,
except the local traffic police (Article 118 (4) no.4)
and the river and navigation police on the Danube, Lake Constance, Lake
Neusiedl, and boundary stretches of other frontier waters, shall be prescribed
in corresponding laws of the Federation and the State concerned.
(5) In so far as executive
acts in building matters concern federally owned buildings which serve
public purposes, like accommodation for federal authorities and offices
or public institutions including schools and hospitals or barracks quarters
for members of the Army or other federal employees, these executive acts
fall under the indirect federal administration; the final decision on appeals
rests with the State-Governor. Nevertheless determination of alignment
and level in these cases too falls under the executive power of the States.
(6) In so far as framework
legislation has been reserved to the Federation, detailed implementation
within the framework laid down by federal law is incumbent on State legislatures.
The federal law can fix for the issue of the implementing legislation a
deadline which may not without the consent of the Senate, be shorter than
six months and not longer than one year. If a State does not observe this
deadline, competence for the issue of the implementing legislation passes
from that State to the Federation. As soon as the State has issued the
implementing legislation the federal implementing legislation becomes invalidated.
If the Federation has not established any framework, State legislation
is free to settle such matters. As soon as the Federation has established
a framework, the provisions of State legislation shall within the deadline
to be appointed by federal law be adjusted to the framework legislation.
(7) If an executive act
on the part of one State in matters covered by Articles 11,
12, 14 (2) and (3), and 14a (3) and (4) is to
be effective in several States, the participant States shall take the lead
in reaching an agreed basis. If within six months from the legal business
arising no agreed ruling has been laid down, the competence for such an
act passes, upon request by one of the States or one of the parties participating
in the matter, to the competent Federal Ministry. The details can be settled
by federal laws promulgated under Articles 11, 12, 14
(2) and (3), and 14a (3) and (4).
(8) In matters reserved
to federal legislation in conformity with Articles 11
and 12, the Federation is entitled to control the observance of the
regulations it has issued.
(9) States are competent
within the scope of their legislation to make likewise in the field of
civil and criminal law the provisions necessary to dispose of an item.
(10) State legislation which
alters or settles along the lines the existent organization of the ordinary
public administration in the States, may only be promulgated with the consent
of the Federal Government.
Article
15a [Agreements Between Federation and States]
(1) Federation and States
can make agreements among themselves about matters within their respective
sphere of competence. The conclusion of such agreements in the name of
the Federation is, depending on the subject, incumbent on the Federal Government
or Federal Minister. Agreements which are to be binding also on the authorities
of the federal legislature can be concluded by the Federal Government only
with the approval of the House of Representatives. Article 50
(3) shall by analogy be applied to such resolutions of the House of
Representatives; they shall he published in the federal law Gazette.
(2) Agreements between the
States can only be made about matters of their autonomous sphere of competence
and must without delay be brought to the Federal Government's knowledge.
(3) The principles of international
law concerning treaties shall apply to agreements within the meaning of
Paragraph (1). The same applies for agreements within the meaning of Paragraph
(2), save as provided otherwise by corresponding constitutional laws of
the States in question.
Article
16 [Implementation of Treaties]
(1) The States are bound
to take measures which become necessary within their autonomous sphere
of competence for the implementation of international treaties; should
a State fail to comply punctually with this obligation, competence for
such measures, particularly issuing the necessary laws, passes to the Federation.
A measure taken by the Federation pursuant to this provision, particularly
issuing a law or an ordinance, becomes invalid as soon as the State has
taken the requisite action.
(2) Likewise, in the implementation
of treaties with foreign states, the Federation has the right of supervision
in matters which belong to the autonomous sphere of competence of the States.
In such case the Federation has the same rights with respect to the States
as in matters of the indirect federal administration (Article 102).
Article
17 [Competences Not Restricting Civil Rights]
(1) The provisions of Articles
10 to 15 with regard to competence of legislation
and execution in no way affects the position of the Federation as the holder
of civil rights.
(2) The Federation can in
all these legal relations never be placed by State legislation in a position
less favorable than that of the State concerned.
Article
18 [Rule of Law]
(1) The entire public administration
shall be based on law.
(2) Every administrative
authority can on the basis of law issue ordinances within its sphere of
competence.
(3) If the immediate issue
of measures, which require in accordance with the Constitution a resolution
by the House of Representatives, becomes necessary to prevent obvious and
irreparable damage to the community at a time when the House of Representatives
is not assembled, cannot meet in time, or is impeded from action by circumstances
beyond its control, the Federal President can at the recommendation of
the Federal Government and on his and their responsibility take these measures
by way of provisional law-amending ordinances. The Federal Government must
present its recommendation with the consent of the Standing Sub-Committee
to be appointed by the Main Committee of the House of Representatives (Article
55 (2)). Such an ordinance requires the countersignature
of the Federal Government.
(4) Every ordinance issued
in accordance with Paragraph (3) shall without delay be submitted by the
Federal Government to the House of Representatives which if it is not in
session at this time shall be convened by the Federal President, but if
it is in session by the President of the House of Representatives, on one
of the eight days following its submission. Within four weeks of the submission,
the House of Representatives must either vote a corresponding federal law
in place of the ordinance or pass a resolution demanding that the ordinance
immediately become invalidated. In the latter case the Federal Government
must immediately meet this demand. In order that the resolution of the
House of Representatives may be adopted in time, the President shall at
the latest submit the motion to the vote on the last day but one before
expiry of the four weeks deadline; detailed provisions shall be made in
the Standing Orders.
(5) The ordinances specified
in Paragraph (3) may not contain an amendment to provisions of federal
constitutional law and may have for their subject neither a permanent financial
burden on the Federation nor a financial burden on the States, Districts,
or Counties nor financial commitments for federal citizens nor an alienation
of state property nor measures of matters specified in Article 10
(1) no.11 nor, finally, such as concern the right of collective association
or rent protection.
Article
19 [Governmental Power, Incompatibility]
(1) The highest executive
authorities are the Federal President, the Federal Ministers and the Secretaries
of State, and the members of the State Governments.
(2) The admissibility of
activities in the private sector of the economy by the authorities specified
in Paragraph (1) and other public functionaries can be restricted by federal
law.
Article
20 [Administration]
(1) Under the direction
of the highest authorities of the Federation and the States elected temporary
functionaries or permanent appointees conduct the administration in accordance
with the provisions of the laws. They are, except for differing regulations
by Constitutional laws, bound by the instructions of their superiors and
responsible to these for the exercise of their office. The subordinate
officer can refuse compliance with an instruction if the instruction was
given by an authority not competent in the matter or compliance would infringe
the criminal code.
(2) If Federal or State
law has appointed for decision in the last instance a tribunal whose rulings
are, according to the provisions of the law, not subject to rescission
or alteration through administrative authorities and whose membership includes
at least one judge, the other members of this tribunal are likewise bound
by no instructions in the exercise of their office.
(3) All functionaries entrusted
with administrative duties of Federation, States, and Counties are, except
for differing regulations by law, pledged to secrecy about all facts of
which they have obtained knowledge exclusively from their official activity
and whose concealment is enjoined by the public interest or that of the
parties concerned. Official secrecy does not exist for functionaries appointed
by a popular representative body if it expressly asks for such information.
Article
21 [Service Code]
(1) Legislation and execution
in matters of the service code for and staff representation rights of employees
of the States, the Counties, and the County Associations are, save as provided
otherwise, in all matters in Paragraph (2) and Article 14
(2) and (3)(d), incumbent on the States. The laws and ordinances issued
by the States in matters of the service code may not differ in such degree
from the laws and ordinances of the Federation relating to the service
code as substantially to impede the alternation of service stipulated pursuant
to Paragraph (4).
(2) The State laws promulgated
in accordance with Paragraph (1) in the field of service contract regulations
may only contain provisions dealing with establishment and severance of
the employment relationship and the rights and duties arising therefrom.
Legislation and execution in matters of employee protection for functionaries
(Paragraph (1)) and to staff representation of States functionaries, in
so far as they are not engaged in public enterprises, are incumbent on
the States. In so far as in accordance with this paragraph the States are
not competent, the aforementioned matters fall within the competence of
the Federation.
(3) The service prerogative
with regard to employees of the Federation is exercised by the highest
authorities of the Federation, the service prerogative with regard to employees
of the States by the highest authorities of the States. The service prerogative
with regard to the employees of the Auditing Board is exercised on behalf
of the Federation by the president of the Auditing Board.
(4) The possibility of an
alternation of service between the Federation, the States, the Counties,
and the County Associations pertains guaranteed at all times to public
employees. The alternation of service will take place with the agreement
of the authorities competent to exercise the service prerogative. Special
arrangements to facilitate the alternation of service can be made by federal
law.
(5) Official titles for
the functionaries of the Federation, the States, the Counties, and the
County Associations can be laid down by federal law in a standardized form.
Their use is safeguarded by law.
Article
22 [Mutual Assistance]
All authorities of the Federation,
the States, and the Counties are bound within the framework of their legal
sphere of competence to render each other mutual assistance.
Article
23 [State Liability]
(1) The Federation, the
States, the Districts, the Counties, and the other bodies and institutions
established under public law are liable for the injury which persons acting
on their behalf in execution of the laws have by illegal behavior culpably
inflicted on whomsoever.
(2) Persons acting on behalf
of one of the legal entities specified in Paragraph (1) are liable to it,
in so far as intent or gross negligence can be laid to their charge, for
the injury for which the legal entity has indemnified the injured party.
(3) Persons acting on behalf
of one of the legal entities specified in Paragraph (1) are liable for
the injury which in execution of the laws they have by illegal behavior
inflicted directly on the legal entity.
(4) The detailed provisions
with respect to Paragraphs (1) to (3) will be established by federal law.
(5) A federal law can also
provide to what extent special provisions deviating from the principles
laid down in Paragraph (1) to (3) above apply in the field of the postal,
telegraph, and telephone system.
Chapter II Federal Legislation
Part A The House of Representatives
Article
24 [Legislative Power]
The legislative. power of
the Federation is exercised by the House of Representatives jointly with
the Senate.
Article
25 [Seat]
(1) The seat of the House
of Representatives is Vienna, the federal capital.
(2) For the duration of
extraordinary circumstances, the Federal President can at the request of
the Federal Government convoke the House of Representatives elsewhere within
federal territory.
Article
26 [Election]
(1) The House of Representatives
is elected by the nation in accordance with the principles of proportional
representation on the basis of equal, direct, secret, and personal suffrage.
for men and women who have completed their nineteenth year of life on a
day appointed prior to the election. Voting is compulsory. in the Federal
States where this has been enacted by State law. Detailed provisions about
the electoral procedure and compulsory voting, if necessary, will be made
by federal law. This federal law shall in particular lay down the reasons
held to excuse non-participation in the election notwithstanding compulsory
voting.
(2) The federal territory
will be divided into self-contained constituencies whose boundaries may
not overlap States boundaries. The number of deputies shall be divided
among the qualified voters of a constituency in proportion to the number
of nationals in the constituencies, i.e., the number of federal nationals
who in accordance with the result of the last census had their domicile
in the constituencies. A division of the electorate into other electoral
bodies is not admissible.
(3) The day of the poll
must be a Sunday or other public holiday.
(4) Eligible for election
is every qualified voter who has completed his/her twenty first year of
life before the day appointed prior to the election.
(5) Exclusion from the right
to vote and from eligibility can only ensue from a sentence or order by
the courts.
(6) Electoral boards shall
be appointed for the implementation and conduct of elections to the House
of Representatives, the election of the Federal President, and referenda
in accordance with Article 46 as well as for assistance
in the scrutiny of initiatives. Their members, with voting rights, shall
include representatives from the participant political parties. The main
electoral board shall include members who belong or have belonged to the
judiciary. The electoral regulations shall lay down, notwithstanding members
originating from the professional judiciary, number of members to be allocated
to the participant political parties in accordance with their strength
as ascertained at the last House of Representatives election.
(7) The electoral register
will be drawn up by the Counties as part of their assigned sphere of competence.
Article
27 [Term]
(1) The legislative period
of the House of Representatives lasts four years, calculated from the day
of its first meeting but in any case until the day on which the new House
of Representatives meets.
(2) The newly elected House
of Representatives shall be convened by the Federal President within thirty
days after the election. The latter shall be so arranged by the Federal
Government as to enable the newly elected House of Representatives to meet
on the day after the expiry of the fourth year of the legislative period.
Article
28 [Sessions]
(1) The Federal President
convokes the House of Representatives each year for an ordinary session
which shall not begin before 15 Sep and not last longer than 15 July the
following year.
(2) The Federal President
can also convoke the House of Representatives for extraordinary sessions.
If the Federal Government or at least one third of the members of the House
of Representatives or if the Senate so demands, the Federal President is
bound to convoke the House of Representatives for an extraordinary session
to meet within two weeks of the demand; the convocation needs no countersignature.
A request by members of the House of Representatives or by the Senate does
not require a recommendation by the Federal Government.
(3) The Federal President
declares sessions of the House of Representatives closed in pursuance of
a vote by the House of Representatives.
(4) Upon the opening of
a new House of Representatives session within the same legislative period
work will be continued in accordance with the stage reached at the close
of the last session. At the end of a session individual committees can
be instructed by the House of Representatives to continue their work.
(5) During a session the
President of the House of Representatives convokes the individual sittings.
If within a session at least a quarter of the House of Representatives'
members or the Federal Government so demands, the President is bound to
convoke a sitting in such manner that the House of Representatives meets
within five days of the demand.
(6) The federal law on the
House of Representatives' Standing Orders shall lay down special provisions
for its convocation in the event of the elected Presidents being precluded
from the performance of their office or being deprived of their functions.
Article
29 [Dissolution]
(1) The Federal President
can dissolve the House of Representatives, but he may avail himself of
this prerogative only once for the same reason. In such case the new election
shall be so arranged by the Federal Government that the newly elected House
of Representatives can at the latest meet on the hundredth day after the
dissolution.
(2) Before expiry of a legislative
period the House of Representatives can vote its own dissolution by simple
law.
(3) After a dissolution
pursuant to Paragraph (2) as well as after expiry of the period for which
the House of Representatives has been elected, the legislative period lasts
until the day on which the newly elected House of Representatives meets.
Article
30 [Organization]
(1) The House of Representatives
elects the President, the Second, and Third Presidents from among its members.
(2) The business of the
House of Representatives is conducted in pursuance of a special federal
law. The federal law on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders can
only be passed in the presence of half the members and by a two thirds
majority of the votes cast.
(3) The Parliamentary Staff,
which is subordinate to the President of the House of Representatives,
is competent for the conduct of Parliamentary auxiliary services and administrative
matters within the scope of the federal legislature. The internal organization
of the Parliamentary Staff for matters of the Senate shall be settled in
agreement with the Chairman of the Senate who is likewise invested with
authority to issue instructions as to implementation of the functions assigned
to the Senate on the basis of this law.
(4) The nomination of Parliamentary
Staff employees and all other competencies in personnel matters lie with
the President of the House of Representatives.
(5) The President of the
House of Representatives can delegate parliamentary Staff employees to
parliamentary parties for help in the fulfillment of parliamentary duties.
(6) The President of the
House of Representatives is the highest administrative authority in the
execution of the administrative matters for which he is, according to this
Article, competent and he exercises these powers in his own right. He may
issue ordinances inasmuch as these exclusively concern administrative matters
regulated by this Article.
Article
31 [Majority]
Save as otherwise provided
in this law or as otherwise laid down in the federal law on the House of
Representatives' Standing Orders with regard to individual matters, the
presence of at least one third of the members and an absolute majority
of the votes cast is requisite to a vote by the House of Representatives.
Article
32 [Publicity]
(1) The sessions of the
House of Representatives are public.
(2) The public shall be
excluded if the chairman or one fifth of the members present so demand
and the House of Representatives votes this after the withdrawal of the
audience.
Article
33 [Publications]
No one shall be called to
account for publishing true accounts of proceedings in the public sessions
of the House of Representatives and its committees.
Article
34 [Representation]
(1) Pursuant, to the following
provisions, the States are represented in the Senate in proportion to the
number of nationals in each of them.
(2) The State with the largest
number of citizens delegates twelve members, every other State as many
as the ratio in which its nationals stand to those in the first-mentioned
State, with remainders which exceed half the coefficient counting as full.
However, every State is entitled to a representation of at least three
members. A substitute will be appointed for each member.
(3) The number of members
to be delegated by each State accordingly will be re-calculated after every
general census by the Federal President.
Article
35 [Election]
(1) The members of the Senate
and their substitutes are elected by the State Parliaments for the duration
of their respective legislative periods in accordance with the principle
of proportional representation, but at least one seat must fall to the
party having the second largest number of seats in a State Parliament or,
should several parties have the same number of seats, the second highest
number of votes at the last election to the State Parliament. When the
claims of several parties are equal, the issue shall be decided by lot.
(2) The members of the Senate
need not belong to the State Parliament which delegates them, but they
must be eligible for that State Parliament.
(3) After expiry of the
legislative period of a State Parliament or after its dissolution, the
members delegated by it to the Senate remain in office until such time
as the new State Parliament has held the election to the Senate.
(4) The provisions of Articles
34 and 35 can only be amended,
apart from the majority of votes requisite in general to the adoption of
a resolution there, if in the Senate the majority of the representatives
from at least four States has approved the amendment.
Article
36 [Chairman, Convocation]
(1) The States succeed each
other in alphabetical order every six months in the chairmanship of the
Senate.
(2) The representative who
heads the delegation of the State entitled to the chairmanship acts as
Chairman; the appointment of the Deputy Chairmen will be prescribed by
the Senate's Standing Orders.
(3) The Senate will be convoked
by its Chairman at the seat of the House of Representatives. The Chairman
is bound immediately to convoke the Senate if at least one quarter of its
members or the Federal Government so demands.
Article
37 [Quorum, Majority, Standing Orders, Publicity]
(1) Save as provided differently
by law, the presence of at least one third of the members and an absolute
majority of the votes cast is requisite to a resolution by the Senate.
(2) The Senate furnishes
itself with Standing Orders by way of resolution. This resolution can only
be adopted in the presence of half the members with a two thirds majority
of the votes cast.
(3) The meetings of the
Senate are public. The public can, pursuant to the provisions of the Standing
Orders, be excluded by resolution. The provisions of Article 33
also apply to public meetings of the Senate and its committees.
Article
38 [Functions]
The House of Representatives
and the Senate meet, together building the Federal Assembly, in public
session at the seat of the House of Representatives for the affirmation
of the Federal President as well as for the adoption of a resolution on
a declaration of war.
Article
39 [Chairman]
(1) Apart from the cases
stated in Articles 60 (6), 63 (2),
64 (4), and 68 (2), the Federal
Assembly is convoked by the Federal President. The chairmanship alternates
between the President of the House of Representatives and the Chairman
of the Senate, beginning with the former.
(2) The House of Representatives'
Standing Orders are applied analogously in the Federal Assembly.
(3) The provisions of Article
33 apply for the sessions of the Federal Assembly.
Article
40 [Resolutions]
(1) The resolutions of the
Federal Assembly are authenticated by its Chairman and countersigned by
the Federal Chancellor.
(2) The resolutions of the
Federal Assembly upon a declaration of war shall be officially published
by the Federal Chancellor.
Part D Federal Legislative Procedure
Article
41 [Bills]
(1) Legislative proposals
are submitted to the House of Representatives either as motions by its
members or as Federal Government bills. The Senate can propose legislative
motions to the House of Representatives by way of the Federal Government.
(2) Every motion proposed
by 100,000 voters or by one sixth each of the voters in three States shall
be submitted by the main electoral board to the House of Representatives
for action. The initiative. must be put forward in the form of a draft
law.
Article
42 [Objection]
(1) Every enactment of the
House of Representatives shall without delay be conveyed by the President
to the Senate.
(2) Save as otherwise provided
by constitutional law, an enactment can be authenticated and published
only if the Senate has not raised a reasoned objection to this enactment.
(3) This objection must
be conveyed to the House of Representatives in writing by the Chairman
of the Senate within eight weeks of the enactment's arrival; the Federal
Chancellor shall be informed thereof.
(4) If the House of Representatives
in the presence of at least half its members once more carries its original
resolution, this shall be authenticated and published. If the Senate resolves
not to raise any objection or if no reasoned objection is raised within
the deadline laid down in Paragraph (3), the enactment shall be authenticated
and published.
(5) The Senate can raise
no objection to resolutions of the House of Representatives relating to
a law on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders, the dissolution
of the House of Representatives, the appropriation of the Federal Budget
estimates, the sanction of the final Federal Budget., the raising or conversion
of federal loans, or the disposal of federal property. These enactments
of the House of Representatives shall be authenticated and published without
further formalities.
Article
43 [Referendum]
If the House of Representatives
so decides or if the majority of members of the House of Representatives
so demands, every enactment of the House of Representatives shall be submitted
to a referendum. upon conclusion of the procedure pursuant to Article 42
but before its authentication by the Federal President.
Article
44 [Constitutional Laws]
(1) Constitutional laws
or constitutional provisions contained in simple laws can be passed by
the House of Representatives only in the presence of at least half the
members and by a two thirds majority of the votes cast, they shall be explicitly
specified as such.
(2) Any total revision of
the Federal Constitution shall upon conclusion of the procedure pursuant
to Article 42 but before its authentication by the
Federal President be submitted to a referendum by the entire nation, whereas
any partial revision requires this only if one third of the members of
the House of Representatives or the Senate so demands.
Article
45 [Referendum Majority]
(1) For a referendum, the
absolute majority of the validly cast votes is decisive.
(2) The result of a referendum
shall be officially announced.
Article
46 [Initiative and Referendum Law]
(1) The procedure for an
initiative and a referendum will be prescribed by federal law.
(2) Everyone who is eligible
for the House of Representatives has the right to vote.
(3) A referendum takes place
at the order of the Federal President.
Article
47 [Signatures]
(1) The constitutional enactment
of federal laws is authenticated by the signature of the Federal President.
(2) The submission for authentication
is effected by the Federal Chancellor.
(3) The authentication shall
be countersigned by the Federal Chancellor.
Article
48 [Publication]
Federal laws and the treaties
specified in Article 50 will be published with reference
to their adoption by the House of Representatives; federal laws based upon
a referendum with reference to the result of that referendum.
Article
49 [Promulgation]
(1) Federal laws and the
treaties specified in Article 50 shall be published
by the Federal Chancellor in the Federal Law Gazette. Unless explicitly
provided otherwise, their entry into force begins with expiry of the day
on which the number of the Federal Law Gazette containing their publication
is issued and distributed and it extends, unless explicitly provided otherwise,
to the entire federal territory; this does not apply to treaties which
are to be implemented by the issue of laws (Article 50
(2)).
(2) The House of Representatives
can on the occasion of giving its sanction to treaties pursuant to Article
50 resolve that a treaty or individual explicitly
specified parts of it shall be published not in the federal law Gazette,
but in another appropriate manner. Such a resolution by the House of Representatives
has to state the manner of publication, which must guarantee the accessibility
of the treaty for the duration of its validity, and shall be notified by
the Federal Chancellor in the Federal Law Gazette. Unless explicitly provided
otherwise, the entry into force of such treaties begins with expiry of
the day on which the number of the Federal Law Gazette containing the notification
of the resolution by the House of Representatives is issued and distributed
and it extends, unless explicitly provided otherwise, to the entire federal
territory.
(3) A special federal law
on the Federal Law Gazette will he promulgated.
Article
49a [Republication]
(1) The Federal Chancellor
is empowered jointly with the competent Federal Ministers to restate with
binding effect federal laws in their valid version by publication in the
Federal Law Gazette.
(2) On the occasion of the
republication:
1. obsolete terminological
expressions can be rectified and outdated spelling assimilated to the new
manner of writing;
2. references to other regulations
which no longer fit in with current legislation as well as other inconsistencies
can be rectified;
3. provisions which have
been nullified by later regulations or otherwise rendered void can be declared
invalid;
4. title abridgements and
alphabetical abbreviations of titles can be laid down;
5. the designations of articles,
sections, paragraphs, and the like can in case of elimination or insertion
be correspondingly altered and in this connection references thereto within
the text of the regulation be appropriately rectified; and
6. interim provisions as
well as earlier still applicable versions of the federal law in question
can by specification of their purview be recapitulated and simultaneously
with the republication be separately issued.
(3) From the day following
issue of the republication all courts and administrative authorities are
bound by the restated text of the federal law in respect of facts materializing
thereafter.
Part E Participation of the House of Representatives and of the Senate in Execution by the Bund
Article
50 [Treaties]
(1) Political treaties,
and others in so far as their contents modify or complement existent laws,
may only be concluded with the sanction of the House of Representatives.
(2) At the time of giving
its sanction to a treaty which falls under Paragraph (1), the House of
Representatives can decide that the treaty in question shall be implemented
by the issue of laws.
(3) The provisions of Article
42 (1) to (4) and, should constitutional law be modified
or complemented by the treaty, the provisions of Article 44
(1) apply analogously to resolutions of the House of Representatives
in accordance with Paragraphs (1) and (2). In a vote of sanction adopted
pursuant to Paragraph (1), such treaties or such provisions as are contained
in treaties shall be explicitly specified as "constitutionally modifying".
Article
51 [Budget]
(1) At the latest ten weeks
before expiry of the fiscal year the Federal Government shall submit to
the House of Representatives an estimate of the revenue and expenditure
of the Federation for the ensuing fiscal year. Its contents may not be
made public before the beginning of the deliberations in the House of Representatives.
(2) Federal expenditure
not earmarked in the Federal Finance Act or by a special law requires before
its execution constitutional sanction by the House of Representatives which
shall be obtained by the Federal Minister of Finance. Should delay be dangerous,
such federal expenditure, in so far as it does not exceed 1,000,000.- Schilling,
can be undertaken with the consent of the Main Committee of the House of
Representatives; the sanction of the House of Representatives shall subsequently
be requested.
(3) If the draft Federal
Budget submitted by the Federal Government in due time (Paragraph (1))
to the House of Representatives is not constitutionally sanctioned before
expiry of the fiscal year and by that date no temporary provision has been
made by federal law, then, during the first two months of the ensuing fiscal
year, the taxes, levies, and imposts revenue shall be collected in accordance
with the existing regulations and federal expenditure shall be defrayed
to the account of the appropriations to be laid down by law, with the exception
of expenditure of a kind not specially earmarked in the last Federal Finance
Act. The ceiling of the admissible federal expenditure is formed by the
expenditure appropriations contained in the draft Federal Budget submitted
to the House of Representatives, and one twelfth of these appropriations
shall serve as the foundation for each month's expenditure. The expenditure
requisite to the fulfillment of legal liabilities shall be defrayed in
accordance with maturity. The filling of official appointments likewise
ensues on the basis of the draft Federal Finance Act submitted to the House
of Representatives. In other respects, the provision of the last Federal
Finance Act, in so far as they do not concern figures relating to the administration
of public funds remain analogously in force for the above-mentioned two
months.
Article
52 [Government Interrogation]
(1) The House of Representatives
and the Senate are entitled to examine the administration of affairs by
the Federal Government, to interrogate its members about all subjects of
its execution, and to demand all relevant information as well as to ventilate
in resolutions their wishes about exercise of the executive power.
(2) Every member of the
House of Representatives and the Senate is entitled during the sessions
of the House of Representatives and the Senate to address brief oral questions
to members of the Federal Government.
(3) The detailed regulations
respecting the right of interrogation will be settled by the federal law
on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders as well as in the Senate's
Standing Orders.
Article
53 [Committees of Inquiry]
(1) The House of Representatives
can, by resolution, set up committees of inquiry.
(2) The detailed regulations
respecting the establishment of and the procedure for committees of inquiry
will be settled by the federal law on the House of Representatives' Standing
Orders.
(3) The courts and all other
authorities are obliged to comply with the request of these committees
to take evidence; all public departments must on demand produce their files.
Article
54 [Tariffs]
The House of Representatives
participates in laying down railway fares, postal, telegraph, and phone
rates, and the prices for monopoly commodities as well as the payment for
persons regularly employed in federal establishments. This participation
will be prescribed by federal constitutional law.
Article
55 [Main Committee]
(1) The House of Representatives
elects its Main Committee from its members in accordance with the principle
of proportional representation; it can be laid down by federal law that
certain ordinances by the Federal Government or a Federal Minister need
the agreement of the Main Committee and that reports by the Federal Government
or a Federal Minister shall be rendered to the Main Committee. Should the
need arise, the Main Committee shall be convoked between sessions of the
House of Representatives (Article 28).
(2) The Main Committee elects
from among its members a Standing Sub-Committee upon which it devolves
the powers stipulated by law. The election takes place in accordance with
proportional representation notwithstanding inclusion of at least one member
of every party belonging to the Main Committee. The Standing Orders must
provide that the Standing Sub-Committee can be convoked and can meet at
any time. If the House of Representatives in accordance with Article 29
(1) is dissolved by the Federal President, participation in the executive
power which in accordance with this law otherwise lies with the House of
Representatives devolves to the Standing Sub-Committee.
Part F Status of Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate
Article
56 [Independence]
The members of the House
of Representatives and the members of the Senate are not bound in the exercise
of their function by any mandate.
Article
57 [Indemnity, Immunity]
(1) The members of the House
of Representatives may never be made responsible for votes cast in the
exercise of their function and only by the House of Representatives on
the grounds of oral or written utterances made in the course of their function.
(2) The members of the House
of Representatives may, on the ground of a criminal offence -- except for
apprehension in flagrante delicto -- be arrested only with the consent
of the House of Representatives. Searches of the home of House of Representatives
members likewise require the House of Representatives' consent.
(3) Other legal action on
the ground of a criminal offence may be taken against members of the House
of Representatives without the House of Representatives' consent only if
it is manifestly not connected to the political activity of the member
in question. The authority concerned must seek a ruling by the House of
Representatives on the existence of such a connection if the member in
question or a third of the members belonging to the Standing Committee
entrusted with these matters so demands. Every act of legal process shall
in the case of such a demand immediately cease or be discontinued.
(4) In all these instances
the consent of the House of Representatives counts as granted if within
eight weeks it has not given a ruling on an appropriate request by the
authority competent for the institution of legal action; the President,
with a view to the House of Representatives' adoption of a resolution in
good time, shall at the latest put such a request to the vote on the day
but one before expiry of the deadline. The latter does not include the
period when the House of Representatives is not in session.
(5) In case of a member's
apprehension in the act of committing a crime, the authority concerned
must immediately notify the President of the House of Representatives of
the occurrence of the arrest. If the House of Representatives or, when
it is not in session, the Standing Committee entrusted with these matters
so demands, the arrest must be suspended or the legal process as a whole
be dropped.
(6) The immunity of members
ends with the day of the meeting of the newly elected House of Representatives,
that of functionaries of the House of Representatives whose tenure of office
extends beyond this date on the expiry of this term of office.
(7) The detailed provisions
are settled by the federal law on the House of Representatives' Standing
Orders.
Article
58 [Immunity in the Senate]
The members of the Senate
enjoy for the whole duration of their tenure of office the immunity of
the members of the State Parliament which has delegated them.
Article
59 [Incompatibility, Public Employment]
(1) No one can simultaneously
belong to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
(2) Public employees, including
members of the Federal Army, require no leave of absence to hold a seat
in the House of Representatives or in the Senate. If they seek a seat in
the House of Representatives, they shall be granted the requisite free
time. The service code will provide details.
Article
60 [Election]
(1) The Federal President
is elected by the nation on the basis of equal, direct, secret, and personal
suffrage. If there is only one candidate, the election takes place by way
of referendum. Anyone with House of Representatives suffrage is entitled
to vote. Voting in the election is compulsory. in Federal States where
State law so provides. Detailed provisions about the electoral procedure
and possible compulsory voting will be established by a federal law. This
same law shall in particular lay down the reasons held to excuse non-participation
in the election regardless of compulsory voting.
(2) The candidate who polls
more than half of all valid votes has been elected. If no such majority
results, a second ballot takes place. Votes in this can validly be cast
only for one of the two candidates who have polled the most votes in the
first ballot; but each of the two groups of voters who put up these two
candidates can in the second ballot nominate another individual to replace
its original candidate.
(3) Only a person who has
House of Representatives franchise and was thirty five years old before
the first of January of the year in which the election is held can be elected
Federal President. Members of reigning houses or of formerly regnant families
are excluded from eligibility.
(4) The result of the election
of the Federal President shall be officially published by the Federal Chancellor.
(5) The Federal President
holds office for six years. Re-election for the immediately following term
of office is admissible once.
(6) Before expiry of his
term of office the Federal President can be deposed by referendum. The
referendum shall be held if the Federal Assembly so demands. The Federal
Assembly shall be convoked by the Federal Chancellor for this purpose if
the House of Representatives has passed such a motion. The House of Representatives
vote requires the presence of at least half the members and a majority
of two thirds of the votes cast. By such a House of Representatives vote,
the Federal President is prevented from the further exercise of his office.
Rejection by the referendum of the deposition works as a new election and
entails the dissolution of the House of Representatives (Article 29
(1)). The Federal President's total term of office may not exceed twelve
years.
Article
61 [Incompatibility]
(1) During his tenure of
office, the Federal President may not belong to any popular representative
body nor exercise any other occupation.
(2) The title "Federal President"
may not, even with an addition or in the context of another designation,
be used by anyone else. It is protected by law.
Article
62 [Oath]
(1) On his assumption of
office the Federal President renders the following affirmation before the
Federal Assembly:
"I solemnly promise that
I shall faithfully observe the Constitution and all the laws of the Republic
and shall fulfill my duty to the best of my knowledge and belief."
(2) The addition of a religious
assertion is admissible.
Article
63 [Immunity]
(1) The institution of legal
process against the Federal President is only admissible if the Federal
Assembly has agreed.
(2) The application for
the institution of legal process against the Federal President shall be
filed by the competent authority with the House of Representatives which
votes whether the Federal Assembly shall deal with the matter. If the House
of Representatives pronounces in favor of this, the Federal Chancellor
must immediately convoke the Federal Assembly.
Article
64 [Temporary Discharge]
(1) All of the Federal President's
responsibilities, should he be prevented from their discharge, pass in
the first instance to the Federal Chancellor. If the impediment lasts longer
than twenty days or if pursuant to Article 60 (6)
the Federal President is prevented from the discharge of his office, the
President, the Second President, and the Third President of the House of
Representatives acting as a committee shall undertake the responsibilities
of the Federal President. The same applies if the position of the Federal
President is continuously deficient.
(2) The committee entrusted
with the exercise of the Federal President's functions according to Paragraph
(1) decides by majority vote. Chairmanship of the committee and its public
representation belong to the President of the House of Representatives.
(3) Is one or are two of
the House of Representatives' Presidents prevented from the discharge of
their responsibilities or is their position continuously deficient, the
committee constitutes a quorum even without their participation; in the
event of a tied vote, the President senior in rank has the casting vote.
(4) If the position of the
Federal President is continuously deficient, the Federal Government shall
immediately arrange the election of the new Federal President; after the
ensuing election, the committee shall without delay convoke the Federal
Assembly for the affirmation of the Federal President.
Article
65 [Functions]
(1) The Federal President
represents the Republic internationally, receives and accredits envoys,
sanctions the appointment of foreign consuls, appoints the consular representatives
of the Republic abroad, and concludes treaties. At the time of conclusion
of a treaty not falling under Article 50, he can direct
that the treaty in question shall be implemented by the issue of ordinances.
(2) Furthermore, the following
powers -- notwithstanding the powers assigned to him by other provisions
of this Constitution -- are vested in the President:
a) to appoint federal civil
servants, including officers as well as other federal functionaries, and
to bestow official titles on them;
b) to create and to bestow
professional titles;
c) in individual cases to
pardon persons sentenced without further resources of appeal, to mitigate
and commute sentences pronounced by the courts, as an act of grace to annul
sentences and to grant remission from their legal consequences, and moreover
to quash criminal proceedings in actions subject to prosecution ex officio;
and
d) on the petition of parents
to declare illegitimate children legitimate.
(3) Special laws provide
to what extent powers are additionally vested in the Federal President
with respect to the grant of honorary privileges, extraordinary gratifications,
allowances and pensions, the right to nominate and confirm persons in appointments,
and to exercise other powers in personnel matters.
Article
66 [Authorization]
(1) The Federal President
can assign to the competent members of the Federal Government the right
vested in him to appoint certain categories of federal civil servants.
(2) The Federal President
can authorize the Federal Government or the competent members of the Federal
Government to conclude certain categories of treaties which do not fall
under the terms of Article 50; such an authorization
extends also to the power to issue ordinances in accordance with Article
65 (1) second sentence.
Article
67 [Recommendation, Countersignature]
(1) Save as otherwise provided
by the Constitution, all official acts of the Federal President shall be
based on recommendation by the Federal Government or the Federal Minister
authorized by it. The law provides to what extent the Federal Government
or the competent Federal Minister is herein dependent on recommendations
from other quarters.
(2) Save as otherwise provided
by the Constitution, all official acts of the Federal President require
for their validity the countersignature of the Federal Chancellor or the
competent Federal Minister.
Article
68 [Responsibility]
(1) Pursuant to Article
142, the Federal President is responsible to the Federal
Assembly for the exercise of his functions.
(2) To assert this responsibility,
the Federal Assembly shall on the vote of the House of Representatives
or the Senate be convoked by the Federal Chancellor.
(3) The presence of more
than half the members of each of the two representative bodies and a majority
of two thirds of the votes cast is requisite to a vote whereby a charge,
consonant with Article 142, is proffered against the
Federal President.
Title 2 The Federal Government
Article
69 [Government]
(1) The Federal Chancellor,
the Vice-Chancellor, and the other Federal Ministers are entrusted with
the highest administrative business of the Federation in so far as this
is not assigned to the Federal President. They constitute as a body the
Federal Government. under the chairmanship of the Federal Chancellor.
(2) The Vice-Chancellor
is entitled to deputize for the Federal Chancellor in his entire sphere
of competence. Should the Federal Chancellor and the Vice-Chancellor simultaneously
be prevented from the discharge of their responsibilities, the Federal
President entrusts a member of the Federal Government to deputize for the
Federal Chancellor.
Article
70 [Appointment]
(1) The Federal Chancellor
and, on his recommendation, the other members of the Federal Government
are appointed by the Federal President. No recommendation is requisite
to the dismissal of the Federal Chancellor or the whole Federal Government;
the dismissal of individual members of the Federal Government ensues on
the recommendation of the Federal Chancellor. The appointment of the Federal
Chancellor or the whole Federal Government is countersigned by the newly-appointed
Federal Chancellor; dismissal requires no countersignature.
(2) Only persons eligible
for the House of Representatives can be appointed Federal Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor,
or Federal Minister; members of the Federal Government need not belong
to the House of Representatives.
(3) Should a new Federal
Government be appointed by the Federal President at a time when the House
of Representatives is not in session, he must convoke the House of Representatives
for an extraordinary session (Article 28 (2)) to meet
within one week for the purpose of introducing the new Federal Government.
Article
71 [Interim Government]
Should the Federal Government
have left office, the Federal President shall entrust members of the outgoing
Government or senior civil servants of the Federal departments with continuation
of the administration and one of them with the chairmanship of the provisional
Federal Government until the formation of the new Federal Government. This
provision applies analogously if individual members of the Federal Government
have left office.
Article
72 [Affirmation]
(1) Before assuming office,
the members of the Federal Government render an affirmation to the Federal
President. The addition of a religious assertion is admissible.
(2) The instruments of appointment
for the Federal Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, and the other Federal
Ministers are executed by the Federal President on the day of the affirmation
and are countersigned by the newly appointed Federal Chancellor.
(3) These provisions shall
apply analogously to the cases mentioned in Article 71.
Article
73 [Deputy Minister]
Should a Federal Minister
be temporarily prevented from discharging his responsibilities, the Federal
President entrusts one of the other Federal Ministers or a senior civil
servant of a Federal department to deputize for the Minister. This deputy
carries the same responsibility as a Federal Minister (Article 76).
Article
74 [Vote of No Confidence]
(1) If the House of Representatives
passes an explicit vote of no confidence in the Federal Government or individual
members thereof, the Federal Government or the Federal Minister concerned
shall be removed from office.
(2) The presence of half
of the members of the House of Representatives is required for a vote of
no confidence. Voting shall be adjourned until the next working day but
one if one fifth of the members present so demands. Another adjournment
of the division can ensue only from a decision by the House of Representatives.
(3) Notwithstanding the
power otherwise vested in the Federal President in accordance with Article
70 (1), the Federal Government or its individual members
shall in the legally specified contingencies or at their own wish be removed
from office.
Article
75 [Presence of Government]
The members of the Federal
Government as well as the Secretaries of State are entitled to participate
in all deliberations by the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the
Federal Assembly as well as the committees of these representative bodies,
but only at special invitation in the deliberations by the Standing Sub-Committee
of the House of Representatives' Main Committee and by the House of Representatives'
Committees of Inquiry. On each occasion they must, in accordance with the
detailed provisions of the federal law on the House of Representatives'
Standing Orders and the Senate's Standing Orders, at their request be given
a hearing. The House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Federal Assembly
as well as their committees can require attendance by members of the Federal
Government and request them to initiate investigations.
Article
76 [Responsibility]
(1) Pursuant to Article
142, the members of the Federal Government (Articles
69 and 71) are responsible to
the House of Representatives.
(2) The presence of more
than half the members is required for a motion which proffers a charge
pursuant to Article 142.
Article
77 [Federal Ministries]
(1) The Federal Ministries
and the authorities subordinate to them shall perform the business of the
Federal administration.
(2) The number of the Federal
Ministries, their competence, and their internal organization will be prescribed
by federal law.
(3) The Federal Chancellor
is entrusted with the direction of the Federal Chancellery and a Federal
Minister is entrusted with the direction of each of the other Federal Ministries.
The Federal President can assign to special Federal Ministers the direction
of particular matters which fall within the Federal Chancellery's competence,
including the personnel establishment and organization of such business,
notwithstanding that these matters continue to belong to the Federal Chancellery;
such Federal Ministers have, in respect of the matters in question, the
status of a competent Federal Minister.
(4) The Federal Chancellor
and other Federal Ministers can exceptionally be entrusted with the direction
of a second Federal Ministry.
Article
78 [Special Ministers, Secretaries of State]
(1) In special cases, Federal
Ministers can be appointed without at the same time being put in charge
of a Federal Ministry.
(2) Secretaries of State,
who are appointed and leave office in the same way as Federal Ministers,
can be attached to Federal Ministers for assistance in the conduct of business
and to deputize for them in Parliament.
(3) A Secretary of State
is subordinate to a Federal Minister and bound by his instructions.
Article
79 [Military Defence, Other Functions]
(1) The country' s military
defence is the duty of the Federal Army.
(2) The Federal Army, in
so far as the lawful civil power claims its co-operation, has furthermore:
1. over and above the sphere
of the country's military defence
a) to protect the constitutionally
established institutions as well as their capacity to operate and the population's
democratic freedoms,
b) to maintain order and
security inside the country; and
2. to render assistance
in the case of natural catastrophes and disasters of exceptional magnitude.
(3) Additional tasks of
the Federal Army will be prescribed by Federal constitutional law.
(4) The Defence Law regulates
which officials and authorities can lay direct claim to the co-operation
of the Federal Army for the purposes mentioned in Paragraph (2).
(5) Intervention by the
military on its own initiative for the purposes mentioned in Paragraph
(2) is admissible only if circumstances outside their control have put
it beyond capacity of the competent officials to effect intervention by
the military and irreparable damage to the community at large would arise
from a further wait or if it concerns the repulse of an actual attack,
or the elimination of active resistance directed against a section of the
Federal Army.
Article
80 [Command]
(1) Commander-in-Chief of
the Federal Army is the Federal President.
(2) Save in so far as the
Defence Law reserves disposal over the Federal Army to the Federal President,
disposal over it lies with the competent Federal Minister within the limits
of the authorization conferred on him by the Federal Government.
(3) Supreme command over
the Federal Army is exercised by the competent Federal Minister (Article
76 (1)).
Article
81 [State Participation]
Federal law prescribes to
what extent the States participate in the recruitment, provisioning, and
accommodation for the Army and the supply of its other requirements.
Title 4 The Federal School Authorities
Article
81a [Competence, School Boards]
(1) The administration of
the Federation in the field of schooling and in the field of education
in matters of student hostels shall be undertaken by the competent Federal
Minister and -- in so far as neither the university and fine arts academical
system nor the agricultural and forestry school system nor the forestry
and agricultural educational system in matters of student hostels are concerned
-- by the school authorities of the Federation subordinate to the competent
Federal Minister. The Counties can, as part of the Federation's assigned
sphere of competence, be called upon to maintain registers of those who
are of school-attendance age.
(2) A school authority shall
be established in each State and in each political District and be known
as the State school board and the District school board respectively. In
Vienna, the State school board shall also undertake the duties of the District
school board and be known as the Vienna City School Board. The applicable
sphere of competence for members of the State and District school boards
shall be prescribed by federal law.
(3) The following guiding
principles shall apply to the establishment, to be prescribed by law, of
the Federal school authorities:
a) Committees shall be appointed
within the framework of the Federal school authorities structure. Committee
members of the State school boards, with voting rights, shall be appointed
in proportion to party strength in the State Parliament, committee members
of the District school boards, with voting rights, in proportion to the
votes polled in the District by the parties represented in the State Parliament
at the last State Parliament election. The appointment of all or some of
the committee members by the State Parliament is admissible.
b) The president of the
State school board is the State-Governor, the chairman of the District
school board is the head of the District administrative authority. Should
the appointment of an executive State school board president be foreseen
by law, he shall deputize for the president in all business which the president
does not reserve to himself. Should the appointment of a vice-president
be prescribed by law, he is entitled to inspect documents and to offer
advice; such a vice-president shall in any case be appointed for those
five States which, in accordance with the result of the last census taken
prior to this Federal constitutional law coming into force, have the largest
number of inhabitants.
c) The terms of reference
for the committees and the presidents of the State and District school
boards shall be regulated by law. The committees shall be competent to
issue rules and general instructions, to appoint officials and to render
proposals for nominations as well as to render opinions on drafts of laws
and ordinances.
d) In cases of urgency which
do not admit of postponement until the committee's next meeting, the president
shall take action in the sphere of competence allocated to the committee
as of its business and without delay inform the committee of this.
e) Should for more than
two months a committee lack a quorum, the tasks of the committee for the
further period of its numerical incapacity devolve upon the president.
In these cases the president replaces the committee.
(4) Instructions (Article
20 (1)) cannot be given on matters which fall into
the committees' sphere of competence. This does not apply to instructions
which forbid the implementation of a committee resolution as being contrary
to law or which direct the repeal of an ordinance issued by the committee.
The reasons for such instructions shall be stated. In accordance with Article
129 ff., the authority in receipt of the instruction
can on the basis of a committee resolution immediately make complaint to
the Administrative Court.
(5) The competent Federal
Minister can control in person or through officials of the Federal Ministry
in his charge the condition and performance of those schools and student
hostels which are subordinate to the Federal Ministry by way of the State
school board. Noticed shortcomings -- in so far as they do not concern
such in the sense of Article 14 (8) -- shall be revealed
to the State school board for the purpose of their redress.
Article
81b [Proposals]
(1) The State school board
shall render three sets of proposals:
(a) for the filling of Federation
vacancies for headmasters or headmistresses as well as other teachers and
educational assistants at schools and student hostels subordinate to the
State school boards;
(b) for the filling of Federation
vacancies for the school supervisory officials serving with the State and
District school boards as well as for the appointment of teachers with
school supervisory functions; and
(c) for the appointment
of chairmen and members of the examination boards for the teaching diploma
at upper primary schools and special schools.
(2) The proposals in accordance
with Paragraph (1) shall be rendered, pursuant to Article 66
(1) or 67 (1) or by reason of other provisions,
to the competent Federal Minister. The selection of individuals from among
those proposed is incumbent on the Federal Minister.
(3) Every State school board
shall establish eligibility and disciplinary school boards of first instance
for headmasters or headmistresses and other teachers as well as educational
assistants who are employees under public law of the Federation and are
employed at a school or student hostel subordinate to the State school
board. The details shall be prescribed by federal law.
Article
82 [Judgments]
(1) The Federation is the
source of all jurisdiction.
(2) Judgments and decisions
are pronounced and drawn up in the name of the Republic.
Article
83 [Court Organization, Constitutional Judge]
(1) The constitution and
competence of the courts. is laid down by federal law.
(2) No one may be deprived
of his lawful judge.
Article
84 [Military Tribunals]
Military jurisdiction, except
in time of war, is repealed.
Article
85 [Capital Punishment]
Capital punishment is abolished.
Article
86 [Appointment]
(1) Save as provided otherwise
by this law, judges are appointed pursuant to the proposal of the Federal
Government by the Federal President or, by reason of his authorization,
by the competent Federal Minister; the Federal Government or the Federal
Minister shall obtain proposals for appointment from the tribunals competent
through the law on the organization of the courts.
(2) If a sufficient number
of candidates is available, the proposal for appointment to be submitted
to the competent Federal Minister and to be forwarded by him to the Federal
Government shall comprise at least three names, but if there is more than
one vacancy to be filled at least twice as many names as there are judges
to be appointed.
Article
87 [Independence]
(1) Judges are independent.
in the exercise of their judicial office.
(2) A judge is independent
in the exercise of his judicial office, during the performance of any judicial
function properly his by law, and in the allocation of business, though
to the exclusion of the judiciary's administrative business which in accordance
with the provisions of the law shall not be discharged by tribunals or
commissions.
(3) Business shall be allocated
in advance among the judges of a court for the period provided by the law
on the organization of the courts.. A matter devolving upon a judge in
accordance with this allocation may be removed from his jurisdiction by
decree of the judiciary's administrative authorities only if he is prevented
from the discharge of his responsibilities.
Article
87a [Small Business]
(1) The performance of certain
kinds of business, which shall be exactly specified and fall within the
jurisdiction of a civil court of first instance, can by federal law be
assigned to specially trained employees of the Federation who are not Judges.
(2) The judge competent
in accordance with the allocation of business can at any time reserve to
himself or take over the discharge of such business.
(3) Employees of the Federation
who are not judges are bound in the performance of business specified in
Paragraph (1) only by instructions from the judge competent in accordance
with the allocation of business. Article 20 (1) third
sentence applies.
Article
88 [Retirement, Suspension]
(1) The law on the organization
of the courts will prescribe an age limit upon whose attainment judges
will be put on the permanently retired list.
(2) Otherwise judges may
be removed from office or transferred against their will or superannuated
only in the cases and ways prescribed by law and by reason of a formal
judicial decision. These provisions do not apply to transfers and retirements
which become necessary through changes in the organization of the courts.
In such a case the law will lay down within which period judges can, without
the formalities otherwise prescribed, be transferred and superannuated.
(3) The temporary suspension
of judges from office may take place only by decree of the senior judge
or the higher judicial authority together with simultaneous reference of
the matter to the competent court.
Article
89 [Judicial Review of Laws]
(1) Save as otherwise provided
by this Article, the courts are not entitled to examine the validity of
duly published laws, ordinances, and treaties.
(2) Should a court have
scruples against the application of an ordinance on the ground of it being
contrary to law, it shall file an application with the Constitutional Court.
for rescission of this ordinance. Should the Supreme Court or a court of
second instance competent to give judgment have scruples against the application
of a law on the ground of its being unconstitutional, it shall file an
application with the Constitutional Court for rescission of this law.
(3) If the legal regulation
to be applied has already ceased to be in force, the Court's application
to the Constitutional Court must request a decision that the legal regulation
was contrary to law or unconstitutional.
(4) Paragraphs (2) and (3)
apply analogously to treaties as provided in Article 140a.
(5) Federal law shall determine
what effects an application pursuant to Paragraphs (2), (3), or (4) has
on the pending legal proceedings.
Article
90 [Publicity, Indictment]
(1) Hearings in civil and
criminal cases are oral and public. Exceptions are regulated by law.
(2) In criminal proceedings
the procedure is by indictment.
Article
91 [Juries in Criminal Proceedings]
(1) The people shall participate
in the administration of justice.
(2) A jury returns a verdict
upon the guilt of the accused in crimes entailing severe penalties, to
be specified by law, and in all cases of political felonies and misdemeanors.
(3) In criminal proceedings
for other punishable offenses Jurors take part in the administration of
justice if the penalty to be imposed exceeds a limit to be determined by
law.
Article
92 [Supreme Court]
(1) The Supreme Court is
the court of final instance in civil and criminal suits.
(2) Members of the Federal
Government, a State government, or a popular representative body cannot
be members of the Supreme Court. For members of a popular representative
body elected for a fixed term of legislation or office such incompatibility
continues until the expiry of that term of legislation or office even though
they prematurely renounce their seat. Anyone who during the preceding four
years has exercised one of the aforesaid functions cannot be appointed
President or Vice-President of the Supreme Court.
Article
93 [Pardons]
Pardons for acts punishable
by the courts are extended by federal law.
Article
94 [Separation of Powers]
Judicial and administrative
powers shall be separate at all levels of proceedings.
Chapter IV Legislation and Execution by the States
Article
95 [State Parliaments]
(1) The legislation of the
States is carried out by the State Parliaments. Their members are elected
on the basis of proportional representation by equal, direct, secret, and
personal suffrage of all male and female federal nationals who in accordance
with the State Parliament electoral regulations are entitled to vote and
who have their domicile in the State concerned. The provision of Article
26 (1) last sentence applies analogously; the reasons
which are held to excuse abstention may not be more restrictive than in
the electoral regulations for the House of Representatives.
(2) The State Parliament
electoral regulations may not impose more stringent conditions for suffrage
and electoral eligibility than the electoral regulations for the House
of Representatives.
(3) The voters exercise
their franchise in constituencies each of which must comprise a territorial
unit. The number of members shall be divided among the constituencies in
proportion to the number of nationals. A division of the electorate into
other electoral bodies is not admissible.
(4) Public employees, including
members of the Federal Army, who seek a seat in or are elected for membership
of a State Parliament shall be granted the time necessary for canvassing
or fulfilling their membership duties. Service regulations will lay down
details.
Article
96 [Immunity]
(1) The members of a State
Parliament enjoy the same immunity as the members of the House of Representatives,
the provisions of Article 57 apply analogously.
(2) The provisions of Articles
32 and 33 apply to the meetings of State Parliaments
and their committees.
Article
97 [State Legislation]
(1) A State law requires
a vote by a State Parliament, authentication and countersignature in accordance
with the provisions of the State concerned, and publication by the State-Governor
in the State Law Gazette.
(2) Inasmuch as a State
law foresees in its execution the co-operation of Federal authorities,
the approval of the Federal Government must be obtained. The approval shall
be deemed given if within eight weeks from the day of the enactment's receipt
at the Federal Chancellery the Federal Government has not informed the
State-Governor that the co-operation of the Federal authorities is refused.
Before the expiry of this deadline publication of the enactment may only
ensue if the Federal Government has expressly agreed.
Article
98 [Notification, Objection]
(1) All State Parliament
enactments shall, immediately after they have been passed by a State Parliament,
be notified by the State-Governor to the competent Federal Ministry prior
to their publication.
(2) The Federal Government
can within eight weeks from the day of an enactment's receipt at the Federal
Chancellery enter a reasoned objection to a State Parliament enactment
as endangering Federal interests. If the Federation was prior to the initiation
of the legislative procedure for enactment given opportunity to comment
on the draft bill, the objection may only be founded on an alleged encroachment
on the Federation's competence. In case of an objection, the law may only
be published if the State Parliament in the presence of at least half the
members once more votes its enactment.
(3) Publication prior to
expiry of the deadline for objection is admissible only if the Federal
Government expressly agrees.
(4) The provisions of the
Constitutional Finance Law apply to State Parliament enactments which deal
with taxation.
Article
99 [State Constitutions]
(1) The State Constitution
to be enacted by a State constitutional law can, inasmuch as the Federal
Constitution is not affected thereby, be amended by State constitutional
law.
(2) A State constitutional
law can be passed only in the presence of half the members of the State
Parliament and with a two thirds majority of the votes cast.
Article
100 [Dissolution]
(1) Every State Parliament
can be dissolved by the Federal President at the request of the Federal
Government and with the sanction of the Senate. The motion in the Senate
must be carried in the presence of half the members and with a two thirds
majority of the votes cast. The representatives of the State whose State
Parliament is to be dissolved may not participate in the division.
(2) In case of dissolution,
writs for new elections shall be issued within three weeks in accordance
with the provisions of the State constitution; the convocation of the newly
elected State Parliament must take place within four weeks after the election.
Article
101 [State Government]
(1) The executive power
in each State is exercised by a State Government to be elected by the State
Parliament.
(2) The members of a State
Government need not belong to the State Parliament. Nevertheless, only
persons eligible for the State Parliament can be elected to membership
of the State Government.
(3) The State Government
consists of the State-Governor, the requisite number of deputies, and other
members.
(4) Before assumption of
office, the State-Governor renders to the Federal President, the other
members of the State Government render to the State-Governor, an affirmation
with respect to the Federal Constitution. The addition of a religious assertion
is admissible.
Article
102 [State-Governor]
(1) In the sphere of the
States, in so far as no direct federal administration exists, the State-Governor
and the State authorities subordinate to him exercise the executive power
of
the Federation. In so far as federal authorities, especially Federal public
safety authorities, are entrusted with the execution of matters which are
performed as indirect Federal administration, these federal authorities
are subordinate to the State-Governor and bound by his instructions (Article
20 (1)); whether and to what extent such federal authorities
are entrusted with executive acts is regulated by federal laws; these may,
in so far as they do not concern the mandate stated in Paragraph (2), only
be published with the sanction of the States concerned.
(2) The following matters
can, within the framework of the constitutionally established sphere of
competence, be directly performed by the federal authorities:
- demarcation of frontiers,
trade in goods and livestock with other countries, customs regulation and
control of entry into and exit from federal territory,
- Federal finances monopolies,
the weights and measures, standards and hallmark system, technical experiments,
- administration of justice,
passports, residence registration,
- matters of weapons, ammunition
and explosives as well as the use of fire-arms,
- patent matters and the
protection of designs, trade marks, and other commodity descriptions,
- the traffic system, river
and navigation police, the postal and telecommunications system, mining,
Danube control and conservation, regulation of torrents, construction and
maintenance of waterways,
- surveying, labor legislation,
social insurance, the preservation of monuments,
- operation and conduct
of the Federal police and the Federal gendarmerie, including the exceptional
circumstances where on the day of entry into force of this Federal Constitutional
Law the local sphere of competence for a Federal public safety authority
does not coincide with the territory of a Federal State,
- the maintenance of peace,
order and security, excluding the local public safety authorities,
- Press affairs, matters
of association and assembly, and the aliens police,
- military affairs, welfare
measures for combatants and their dependents,
- population policy in so
far as it concerns the grant of children's allowances and the organization
of burden equalization on behalf of families schooling as well as education
in matters of pupil and student hostels with the exception of agricultural
and forestry education in matters of student hostels.
(3) The Federation remains
entitled to delegate to the State-Governor its executive power also in
the matters enumerated in Paragraph (2).
(4) The establishment of
federal authorities for matters other than those specified in Paragraph
(2) above can ensue only with the sanction of the States concerned.
(5) No other regional authority
may set up and maintain a constabulary in the local sphere of competence
of a Federal public safety administration to which a Federal police force
is attached. The dissolution of constabularies whose establishment or continuance
is contrary to this provision falls under the executive power of the Federation.
(6) The establishment of
Federal public safety authorities, the definition of their local sphere
of competence and of their substantive sphere of competence in administrative
fields which in accordance with Article 10 provide
for execution by Federal public safety authorities, as well as the issue
of a special service code for their officials ensue on Federal Government
ordinance. In so far as such an authority is to be assigned the performance
of matters which fall into the autonomous sphere of execution by a State,
the ordinance can be issued only if the assignment of such business to
the Federal public safety authority has been enunciated in a law of the
State in question.
(7) Should in particular
Counties the need arise to take special measures because of danger to public
peace and order, the competent Federal Minister can for the duration of
the danger entrust special Federal officials with these measures.
Article
103 [Instructions]
(1) In matters of the indirect
Federal administration the State-Governor is bound by instructions from
the Federal Government and individual Federal Ministers (Article 20)
and he is obliged, in order to effect the implementation of such instructions,
to employ the powers available to him in his capacity as a functionary
of the State's autonomous sphere of competence.
(2) A State Government,
when it draws up its Standing Orders, can decide that specific categories
of business of the indirect Federal administration shall be conducted by
members of the State Government in the name of the State-Governor because
of their substantive relationship with matters of the State's autonomous
sphere of competence. In such business the members concerned of the State
Government are as much bound by the instructions of the State-Governor
(Article 20) as is the latter by the instructions
of the Federal Government or individual Federal Ministers.
(3) Instructions issued
by the Federal Government or individual Federal Ministers in accordance
with Paragraph (1) shall also in instances falling under Paragraph (2)
be addressed to the State-Governor. The latter, should he not himself be
conducting the relevant business of the indirect Federal administration,
is responsible (Article 142 (2)(d)) for passing the
instruction in writing without delay and unaltered to the State Government
member concerned and for supervising its implementation. If the instruction
is not complied with although the State-Governor has made the necessary
arrangements, the State Government member concerned is, pursuant to Article
142, responsible to the Federal Government as well.
(4) In matters of indirect
Federal administration, in so far as it is the State-Governor's responsibility
as the appeal authority to reach a decision and federal law because of
the matter's importance does not exceptionally provide otherwise, the State-Governor
is the final instance of appeal; if the decision rests in the first instance
with the State-Governor, the stages of administrative appeal in matters
of the indirect Federal administration extend, unless provided otherwise
by federal law, to the competent Federal Minister.
Article
104 [Assignment]
(1) The provisions of Article
102 shall not apply to agencies for the performance
of Federal business specified in Article 17.
(2) Nonetheless, the Federal
Minister entrusted with the administration of Federal assets can assign
the performance of such business to a State-Governor and the authorities
subordinate to him. Such an assignment can at any time be revoked in part
or in whole. To what extent in exceptional instances the Federation makes
recompense for the accrued costs of performing such business will be regulated
by federal law.
Article
105 [Representation, Deputy State-Governor, Responsibility]
(1) The State-Governor represents
the State. In matters of the indirect Federal administration, he is, pursuant
to Article 142, responsible to the Federal Government.
The State-Governor has a member of the State Government as Deputy State-Governor
selected by the State Government to substitute him. This appointment shall
be notified to the Federal Chancellor. Should the need for substitution
occur, the member of the State Government appointed as substitute is, pursuant
to Article 142, likewise responsible to the Federal
Government in matters of the indirect Federal administration. Immunity
does not bar responsibility on the part of the State-Governor or the member
of the State Government, who acts for him. Immunity also does not bar responsibility
on the part of a member of the State Government in a case arising under
Article 103 (3).
(2) The members of the State
Government are responsible to the State Parliament pursuant to Article
142.
(3) A vote to prefer a charge
within the meaning of Article 142 requires the presence
of half the members.
Article
106 [State Administrative Director]
An administrative civil
servant with legal training will be appointed to take charge as State Administrative
Director of the State Government Office's internal services. He is also
the official assistant of the State-Governor in matters of the indirect
Federal administration.
Part B The Federal Capital, Vienna
Article
108 [Institutions, Offices]
For the Federal capital,
Vienna, in its capacity as a State, the County Parliament has the additional
function of a State Parliament, the Town Senate the function of a State
Government, the Mayor the function of the State-Governor, the Magistrate
the function of the State Government Office, and the Magistrate Director
the function of the State Administrative Director.
Article
109 [Appeal]
In the State Vienna the
chain of appeal in matters of the indirect Federal administration, unless
precluded by federal law, is from the Magistrate acting as District administrative
authority or, in so far as federal authorities are in the first instance
entrusted with their execution (Article 102 (1) second
sentence), from them to the Mayor in his capacity as State-Governor;
in other respects Article 103 (4) applies.
Article
110 [Administrative Tribunal]
The administrative tribunal
to be constituted pursuant to Article 11 (5) at the
Magistrate of the Federal capital, Vienna, in its capacity as the State
Government Office, for the delivery of judgments as authority of last resort
in administrative penal business within the State's autonomous sphere of
competence shall at the same time also undertake the delivery of judgments
as authority of last resort in administrative penal business of the indirect
Federal administration; in these cases the Mayor, in his capacity as State-Governor,
is competent to exercise the right of clemency on the ground of recommendations
by the administrative penal tribunals.
Article
111 [Special Committees]
The final decision in matters
of building and taxation lies with special committees of officials. Their
composition and appointment will be prescribed by State law.
Article
112
Except for the provisions
in Articles 108 to 111, the provisions in Part
C of this Chapter apply to the Federal capital, Vienna, with the exception
of Article 119 (4), 119a. Article 142
(2)(d) also applies to the conduct of the sphere of competence assigned
by the Federation to the Federal capital, Vienna.
Article
115 [Local Counties, Competence]
(1) In so far as in the
following Articles the term County is used, the reference is to be taken
as meaning Local County.
(2) Save as competence on
the part of the Federation is expressly stipulated, State legislation shall
prescribe laws of Counties in accordance with the principles of the Articles
contained in this Part. Competence for the settlement of matters which,
pursuant to Articles 118 and 119,
are to be performed by the Counties, will be determined in accordance with
the general provisions of this Federal Constitutional Law.
Article
116 [Self-Administration]
(1) Every State is divided
into Counties. The County is a territorial corporate body entitled to self-administration.
while being at the same time an administrative local district. Every piece
of State must form part of a County.
(2) The County is an independent
economic entity. It is entitled, within the limits of the laws of the Federation
and the States, to possess assets of all kinds, to acquire and to dispose
of such at will, to operate economic enterprises as well as to manage its
budget independently within the framework of the constitutional finance
provisions and to levy taxation.
(3) A County with at least
20,000 inhabitants shall, at its own request, if State interests are not
thereby jeopardized, be awarded its own charter by way of State legislation.
Such an enactment may only be published with Federal Government approval.
This shall be deemed given if the Federal Government, within eight weeks
from the day of the enactment's arrival at the competent Federal Ministry,
has not informed the State-Governor that the approval is refused. A town
with its own charter shall perform besides its local administrative duties
also those of the District administration.
(4) The formation of County
Associations for specific purposes can be planned on the basis of the competent
legislation (Articles 10 to 15). In so far as such
County Associations are to undertake matters within the County's own sphere
of competence, the members of the County Association shall be accorded
decisive influence upon the performance of the association's functions.
The Counties concerned shall be given a hearing prior to the formation
of County Associations by way of an executive measure.
Article
117 [Authorities, Elections]
(1) The authorities of the
County shall in every instance include:
a) the County Parliament,
being a popular representative body to be elected by those entitled to
vote in the County
b) the County Board, also
known as the Town Council or, in towns with their own charter, the Town
Senate, and
c) the Mayor.
(2) Elections to the County
Parliament take place on the basis of proportional representation by equal,
direct, secret, and personal suffrage of all Federal nationals who have
their domicile in the County. In the electoral regulations the conditions
for suffrage and electoral eligibility may not be more restrictive than
in the electoral regulations for the State Parliament. It can be provided,
however, that individuals who have not yet been residents in the County
for at least one year shall not be entitled to vote or to stand for election
to the County Parliament if their residence in the County is manifestly
temporary. The provisions about compulsory voting in the elections to the
State Parliament (Article 95 (1) last sentence) apply
analogously to elections to the County Parliament. The electoral regulations
can provide that the voters exercise their suffrage in constituencies each
of which must comprise a territorial unit. A division of the electorate
into other electoral bodies is not admissible.
(3) A simple majority by
members present in sufficient numbers to form a quorum is requisite to
a vote by the County Parliament; for certain matters, though, other requirements
for the adoption of resolutions can be provided.
(4) Meetings of the County
Parliament are public, but provision can be made for exceptions. The public
may not be excluded when the County Budget or the County's final accounts
are on the agenda.
(5) Electoral parties represented
in the County Parliament have a claim to representation on the County Board
in accordance with their strength.
(6) The business of the
Counties will be performed by the County Administration or Town Administration,
that of towns with their own charter by the Magistrate. A civil servant
with legal training shall be appointed to take charge as Magistrate Director
of the Magistrate's internal services.
Article
118 [Competencies]
(1) A County has its own
sphere of competence and one assigned to it either by the Federation or
the State.
(2) Its own sphere of competence
comprises, apart from the matters mentioned in Article 116
(2), all matters exclusively or preponderantly concerning the local
community as personified by a County, and suited to performance by the
community within its local boundaries. Legislation shall expressly specify
matters of that kind as being such falling within the County's own sphere
of competence.
(3) A County is guaranteed
official responsibility in its own sphere of competence particularly for
performance of the following matters:
1. appointment of the local
authorities, notwithstanding the competence of selection boards at a higher
level; settlement of the internal arrangements for performance of the County
functions;
2. appointment of the County
staff and exercise of the official responsibility over them, notwithstanding
the competence of disciplinary, eligibility, and investigatory commissions
at a higher level;
3. local public safety administration
(Article 15 (2)), local events control;
4. administration of County
traffic areas, local traffic police;
5. crops protection police;
6. local market police;
7. local sanitary police,
especially in the field of emergency and first aid services as well as
matters of deaths and interment;
8. public decency;
9. local building police
excluding federally owned buildings which serve public purposes (Article
15 (5)); local fire control; local environment planning;
10. public services for
extra-judicial settlement of disputes; and
11. debtors' sale of goods.
(4) The County shall perform
the business for which it is competent within the framework of the laws
and ordinances of the Federation and the State on its own responsibility
free from instructions and -- subject to the provisos of Article 119a
(5) -- to the exclusion of legal redress to administrative authorities
outside the County. A right of supervision (Article 119a)
pertains to the Federation and to the State over the County with respect
to its performance in its own sphere of competence. The provisions of Article
12 (2) remain unaffected.
(5) The Mayor, the members
of the County Board, and, if appointed, other County officials are responsible
to the County Parliament for the performance of their functions relating
to the County's own sphere of competence.
(6) The County is entitled
in matters of its own sphere of competence to issue on its own initiative
local police ordinances for the prevention or elimination of nuisances
interfering with local community life as well as to declare non-compliance
with them an administrative contravention. Such ordinances may not violate
existent laws and ordinances of the Federation and State.
(7) On application by a
County, the performance of certain matters in its own sphere of competence
can, in accordance with Article 119a (3), be assigned
by ordinance of the State Government or by ordinance of the State-Governor
to a state authority. In so far as such an ordinance is meant to assign
competence to a Federal authority, it requires the approval of the Federal
Government. In so far as such an ordinance by the State-Governor is meant
to assign competence to a State authority, it requires the approval of
the State Government. Such an ordinance shall be rescinded as soon as the
reason for its issue has ceased. Assignment does not extend to the right
to issue ordinances in accordance with Paragraph (6).
Article
119 [Assignment]
(1) The assigned sphere
of competence comprises those matters which the County, in accordance with
federal laws, must undertake at the order and in accordance with the instructions
of the Federation or in accordance with State laws at the order and in
accordance with instructions of the State.
(2) The business of the
assigned sphere of competence is performed by the Mayor. In doing so, he
is in matters of Federal execution bound by instructions from the competent
Federal authorities, in matters of State execution by instructions from
the competent State authorities, he is responsible in accordance with Paragraph
(4).
(3) The Mayor can, without
deviation from his responsibility, on account of their factual connection
with matters of the County's own sphere of competence transfer individual
categories of matters of the assigned sphere of competence to members of
the County Board other authorities created in accordance with Article 117
(1), or members of official bodies for performance in his name. In
these matters the authorities concerned or their members are bound by the
instructions of the Mayor and responsible in accordance with Paragraph
(4).
(4) In so far as malice
or gross negligence can be laid to their charge, the authorities named
in Paragraphs (2) and (3) can on account of breach of law as well as on
account of non-compliance with an ordinance or instruction be declared
to have forfeited their office, by the State-Governor if they were acting
in the field of Federal execution, by the State Government if they were
acting in the field of State execution. Should such a person belong to
the County Parliament, the membership is not affected.
Article
119a [Supervision]
(1) The Federation and the
State exercise the right of supervision over a County to the purpose that
it does not infringe laws and ordinances in dealing with its own sphere
of competence, in particular does not overstep its sphere of competence,
and fulfills the duties legally devolving upon it.
(2) The State has the right
to examine the financial administration of a County with respect to its
thrift, efficiency, and expediency. The result of the examination shall
be conveyed to the Mayor for submission to the County Parliament. The Mayor
shall within three months inform the supervisory authority of the measures
taken by reason of the result of the check.
(3) In so far as a County's
own sphere of competence comprises matters deriving from the sphere of
Federal execution, the right of supervision and its legislative regulation
lie with the Federation, in other respects with the States, the right of
supervision shall be exercised by the authorities of the ordinary public
administration.
(4) The supervisory authority
is entitled to inform itself about every kind of County business. The County
is bound to give the information demanded in individual cases by the supervisory
authority and to allow examination to be conducted on the spot.
(5) Whoever alleges infringement
of his rights through the ruling of a local authority in matters belonging
to its own sphere of competence can, after exhausting all channels of appeal
(Article 118 (4)), within two weeks after issuing
of the ruling make representations against it to the supervisory authority.
The latter shall rescind the ruling if the right of the intervener has
been infringed and remand the matter to the County. For towns with their
own charter, the competent legislature (Paragraph (3)) can direct that
representation to the supervisory authority.
(6) The County shall without
delay advise the supervisory authority of ordinances issued in its own
sphere of competence. The supervisory authority shall, after a hearing
of the County, rescind ordinances which are contrary to law and advise
the County of the reasons.
(7) In so far as the competent
legislature (Paragraph (3)) contemplates the dissolution of the County
Parliament as a supervisory expedient, this measure rests with the State
Government in exercise of the State's right of supervision, with the State-Governor
in exercise of the Federation's right of supervision. The admissibility
of effecting a substitution shall be restricted to cases of absolute necessity.
Supervisory expedients shall be applied with greatest possible consideration
for third parties' acquired rights.
(8) Individual measures
to be taken by a County in its own sphere of competence, but which to a
certain degree affect extra-local interests particularly such having a
distinct financial bearing, can be tied by the competent legislature (Paragraph
(3)) to a sanction on the part of the supervisory authority. Only a state
of affairs which unequivocally justifies the preference of extra-local
interests may come into consideration as a reason for withholding the sanction.
(9) The County has the status
of a party to supervisory authority proceedings; it is entitled to lodge
complaints with the Administrative Court (Articles 131
and 132) and with the Constitutional Court (Article 144)
against the supervisory authority.
(10) This Article applies
analogously to supervision of County Associations in so far as these perform
matters pertaining to a County's own sphere of competence (Article 116
(4)).
Article
120 [Local and Regional Counties]
The combination of Local
Counties into Regional Counties, their establishment in line with the pattern
of self-administration, and the determination of other principles for the
organization of the ordinary public administration in the States is the
business of Federal constitutional legislation; its implementation devolves
upon the State legislatures. Settlement of the competence in matters pertaining
to the service code for and staff representation rights of the employees
of Regional Counties is the business of Federal constitutional legislation.
Chapter V Control of Public Accounts and Administration of Public Funds
Article
121 [Auditing Board]
(1) The Auditing Board is
competent to examine the administration of public funds by Federation,
States, County Associations, Counties and other legal entities determined
by law.
(2) The Auditing Board draws
up the final Federal budget accounts and submits them to the House of Representatives.
The contents of the final Federal budget accounts may not be published
before the beginning of the debate thereon in the House of Representatives.
(3) All vouchers about financial
debts of the Federation, in so far as they result in liability on the part
of the Federation, shall be countersigned by the President of the Auditing
Board or, should he be impeded, by his deputy. The countersignature guarantees
only the legality of the debt incurred and its proper entry in the National
Debt ledger.
Article
122 [Responsibility, Independence, Establishment]
(1) The Auditing Board is
directly subordinate to the House of Representatives. It acts in matters
pertaining to Federal administration of public funds as agent for the House
of Representatives, in matters pertaining to States, County Associations,
and local administration of public funds as agent for the State Parliament
concerned.
(2) The Auditing Board is
independent of the Federal Government and the State Governments and subject
only to the provisions of the law.
(3) The Auditing Board consists
of a President, a Vice-President, and the requisite officials and auxiliary
personnel.
(4) The President and Vice-President
of the Auditing Board are elected on the proposal of the Main Committee
of the House of Representatives. Before their assumption of office they
render an affirmation to the Federal President.
(5) The President and the
Vice-President of the Auditing Board may neither belong to any popular
representative body nor may they, during the past four years, have held
office in the Federal Government.
Article
123 [President of the Board]
(1) With regard to accountability,
the President of the Auditing Board has the same status as members of the
Federal Government or members of the State Government concerned, depending
on whether the Auditing Board acts as agent of the House of Representatives
or a State Parliament.
(2) The President and/or
the Vice-President of the Auditing Board can be relieved of office by a
vote of the House of Representatives.
Article
123a [Pariticipation in Debates]
(1) The President and the
Vice-President of the Auditing Board are entitled to participate in the
debates by the House of Representatives and its committees (sub-committees)
on reports by the Auditing Board, on the final Federal budget accounts,
and on the sections relating to the Auditing Board in the Federal Finance
bill.
(2) The President of the
Auditing Board has, in accordance with the detailed provisions of the Federal
law on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders, always the right
to be heard at his own request in the debates on the subjects listed in
Paragraph (1).
Article
124 [Temporary Discharge]
(1) Should the President
of the Auditing Board be prevented from the discharge of his responsibilities,
the Vice-President will act for him, and if the Vice-President too is impeded,
the senior official of the Auditing Board will deputize. This also holds
good if the office of President is vacant. Who shall act in the House of
Representatives as deputy for the President of the Auditing Board is settled
by the Federal law on the House of Representatives' Standing Orders.
(2) If someone deputizes
for the President, the provisions of Article 123 (1)
apply to the deputy.
Article
125 [Appointment]
(1) The officials of the
Auditing Board are appointed by the Federal President upon the recommendation
and with the countersignature of the President of the Auditing Board; the
same applies to granting official titles. The Federal President may, however,
authorize the President of the Auditing Board to appoint officials of certain
categories.
(2) The President of the
Auditing Board appoints the auxiliary personnel.
Article
126 [Incompatibilities]
No member of the Auditing
Board may be a participant in the management and administration of enterprises
subject to control by the Auditing Board. Just as little may a member of
the Auditing Board participate in the management and administration of
any other enterprises operating for profit.
Article
126a [Ruling About Competence]
Should divergences of opinion
arise between the Auditing Board and the Federal Government or a Federal
Minister or a State Government on interpretation of the legal provisions
which prescribe the competence of the Auditing Board, the Constitutional
Court, upon request by the Federal or State Government or the Auditing
Board, decides the issue in closed proceedings. The Procedure will be prescribed
by Federal law.
Article
126b [Scope of Examination]
(1) The Auditing Board shall
examine the entire management, of the Federation and, furthermore, the
financial administration of endowments, funds, and institutions administered
by Federal authorities or persons or groups of persons appointed for this
purpose by authorities of the Federation.
(2) The Auditing Board also
examines the financial administration of enterprises where the Federation
is either the sole participant or holds at least fifty percent of the share
capital together with other legal entities falling within the competence
of the Auditing Board or where the Federation is either their sole or joint
operator with other such legal entities. Such a financial participation
shall be deemed equivalent to the control of enterprises by other financial,
economic, or organizational measures. Moreover, the competence of the Auditing
Board extends to enterprises of any additional category where the conditions
pursuant to this paragraph exist.
(3) The Auditing Board is
competent to examine the financial administration of corporations under
public law using Federal funds.
(4) The Auditing Board shall,
on a vote by the House of Representatives or at the request of House of
Representatives members, carry out special measures of investigation into
financial administration which falls into its sphere of competence. The
more detailed regulation will be laid down by the Federal law on the House
of Representatives' Standing Orders. The Auditing Board shall likewise
carry out such measures at the substantiated request of the Federal Government
or a Federal Minister and report the result to the applicant authority.
(5) Examination by the Auditing
Board shall extend to arithmetical correctness, compliance with existing
regulations, and the employment of thrift, efficiency and expediency.
Article
126c [Financial Examination]
The Auditing Board is competent
to examine the financial administration of the social insurance institutions.
Article
126d [Annual Report]
(1) The Auditing Board annually
renders the House of Representatives, not later than 15 October, in any
year a report on its activities. The Auditing Board can also, at any time,
report to the House of Representatives its observations on individual matters
and, if necessary, make proposals. The Auditing Board must simultaneously
with its submission to the House of Representatives inform the Federal
Chancellor of every report. The annual report of the Auditing Board on
its activities shall be published; a publication of the contents may not,
however, ensue before the beginning of the House of Representatives deliberation.
(2) A Standing Committee
shall be appointed by the House of Representatives to discuss the reports
of the Auditing Board. Its appointment shall maintain the principle of
proportional representation.
Article
127 [State Examination]
(1) The Auditing Board shall
examine the financial administration of the States in their autonomous
sphere of competence as well as the financial administration of endowments,
funds, and institutions administered by the authorities of a State or persons
of groups of persons appointed for the purpose by authorities of the State.
The examination shall extend to arithmetical correctness, compliance with
existing regulations, and the employment of thrift, efficiency, and expedience
in the financial administration; it shall not, however, include the resolutions
passed by the constitutionally competent representative bodies with respect
to the financial administration.
(2) The State Governments
shall annually transmit to the Auditing Board the budget estimates and
the final budget accounts.
(3) The Auditing Board also
examines the financial administration of enterprises where the State is
either the sole participant or holds at least fifty per cent of the share
capital together with other legal entities falling within the competence
of the Auditing Board or where the State is either their sole or joint
operator with other such legal entities. As regards the concept of financial
participation, Article 126b (2) applies analogously.
The competence of the Auditing Board also extends to enterprises of any
additional category where the conditions pursuant to this paragraph exist.
(4) The Auditing Board is
competent to examine the financial administration of corporations under
public law using State funds.
(5) The Auditing Board shall
inform the State Government of the result of its examination for submission
to the State Parliament and for the delivery, if need be, of comment which
must be made within three weeks. The State Government shall, within three
months, advise the Auditing Board of the measures taken by reason of the
result of the examination.
(6) The Auditing Board shall
also notify the Federal Government of the report rendered to the State
Parliament together with any possible comment by the State Government.
(7) The Auditing Board shall,
at the substantiated request of a State Government, carry out special measures
of examination into financial administration which fall into its sphere
of competence and report the result to the applicant authority.
(8) The provisions of this
Article also hold good for the examination into the financial administration
of the City of Vienna, the County Parliament taking the place of the State
Parliament, and the Town Senate taking the place of the State Government.
Article
127a [County Examination]
(1) The Auditing Board shall
examine the financial administration of Counties with at least 20,000 inhabitants
as well as the financial administration of endowments, funds, and institutions
administered by the authorities of a County or persons or groups of persons
appointed for the purpose by the authorities of a County. The examination
shall extend to the arithmetical correctness, compliance with existing
regulations, and the employment of thrift, efficiency, and expediency in
the financial administration.
(2) The Mayor shall annually
transmit to the Auditing Board and simultaneously to the State Government
the budget estimates and the final budget accounts.
(3) The calculation shall
also examine the financial administration of enterprises where a County
with at least 20,000 inhabitants is either the sole participant or holds
at least fifty per cent of the share capital together with other legal
entities falling within the competence of the Auditing Board or where the
County is either their sole or joint operator with other such legal entities.
As regards the concept of financial participation, Article 126b
(2) applies analogously. The competence of the Auditing Board also
extends to enterprises of any additional category where the conditions
pursuant to this paragraph exist.
(4) The Auditing Board is
competent to examine the financial administration of corporations under
public law using funds of a County with at least 20,000 inhabitants.
(5) The Auditing Board shall
inform the Mayor of the result of its examination for submission to the
County Parliament and for the delivery of possible comment which must be
made within three weeks. Upon the expiry of this deadline, the Auditing
Board transmits the result of the examination together with the possibly
accompanying comment to the State Government which informs the State Parliament
of the submission. The Mayor shall, within three months, advise the Auditing
Board of the measures taken by reason of the result of the examination.
(6) The Auditing Board shall
also inform the Federal Government of the result of its examination of
the financial administration.
(7) The Auditing Board shall
also, at the substantiated request of the competent State Government, examine
in individual cases the financial administration of Counties with less
than 20,000 inhabitants and inform the State Government of the result of
this examination. Paragraphs (1) and (3) apply analogously.
(8) The provisions applying
for the examination of the financial administration of Counties with at
least 20,000 inhabitants shall apply analogously to the examination of
the financial administration of County Associations.
Article
128 [Auditing Law]
The more detailed provisions
about the establishment and activity of the Auditing Board will be laid
down by Federal law.
Chapter VI Constitutional and Administrative Guarantees
Part A The Administrative Court
Article
129 [Jurisdiction]
The authority competent
to secure the legality of all acts of public administration is the Administrative
Court at Vienna.
Article
130 [Cases of Illegality]
(1) The Administrative Court
pronounces on complaints which allege:
a) illegality of rulings
by administrative authorities;
b) illegality in the exercise
of direct administrative power and compulsion against a particular person;
or
c) breach of administrative
authorities' duty to take a decision.
The Administrative Court
also decides complaints against instructions received pursuant to Article
81a (4).
(2) No illegality exists
where legislation forbears from the establishment of a binding rule on
an administrative authority's conduct, leaving the determination of such
conduct to the authority itself, and the authority has made use of this
discretion in the spirit of the law.
Article
131 [Standing]
(1) Complaint about illegality
can be brought against the ruling of an administrative authority by:
1) anyone who, after exhausting
all appellate stages, alleges that the ruling infringes their rights;
2) the competent Federal
Minister in matters pertaining to Articles 11, 12, 14
(2) and (3) and 14a (3) and (4) as well as in
those matters where the ruling of a State or District school board is based
on a committee decision and the parties are no longer able to contest the
ruling by way of appeal; and
3) the competent State government
against rulings by the Federal Minister competent in matters pertaining
to the first sentence in Article 15 (5).
(2) The Federal or State
laws relating to the individual fields of administration regulate under
what conditions complaints about illegality are admissible against administrative
authorities' rulings in cases other than those stated in Paragraph (1).
Article
131a [Infringement of Personal Rights]
A party subject to the exercise
of direct administrative power and compulsion can lay complaint against
the alleged infringement of personal rights by the measure concerned.
Article
132 [Complaint About Non-Activity]
Complaint for breach of
the duty to take a decision can be brought by the party who in administrative
proceedings was entitled to claim fulfillment of that duty of decision.
Article
133 [Excluded Matters]
The following matters art
excluded from the jurisdiction of the Administrative Court:
1) matters pertaining to
the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court;
2) {...};
3) patent matters;
4) matters where the final
decision rests with a tribunal if, in accordance with the Federal or State
law which prescribes the organization of this authority, its membership
includes at least one judge, the remaining members too are in the exercise
of this office not bound by any instructions, the rulings of this authority
are not subject to administrative rescission of alteration, and complaint
to the Administrative Court, notwithstanding the fulfillment of these conditions,
is not expressly declared admissible.
Article
134 [Establishment]
(1) The Administrative Court
consists of a President, a Vice-President, and the requisite number of
other members (tribunal presidents and Court councilors).
(2) The President, the Vice-President,
and the other members of the Administrative Court are appointed by the
Federal President on the proposal of the Federal Government. The Federal
Government submits its recommendations, in so far as appointment of the
President or Vice-President is concerned, on the basis of a recommendation
listing three candidates for each vacancy submitted by the Administrative
Court in plenary session.
(3) All members of the Administrative
Court must have completed their studies in law and political science and
for at least ten years have held a professional appointment which prescribes
the completion of these studies. At least one third of the members must
be qualified to hold judicial office while at least one quarter should
be drawn from professional appointments in the States, whenever possible
from the States' administrative service.
(4) Members of the Federal
Government, a State Government, or a popular representative body cannot
be members of the Administrative Court; for members of a popular representative
body elected for a fixed term of legislation or office, such incompatibility
continues until the expiry of that term of legislation or office even though
they prematurely renounce their seat.
(5) Anyone who during the
preceding four years has exercised one of the functions specified in Paragraph
(4) cannot be appointed President or Vice-President of the Administrative
Court.
(6) All members of the Administrative
Court are professionally employed judges. The provisions of Articles 87
(1) and (2) and 88 (2) apply to them. Members
of the Administrative Court are, by operation of law, put on the permanently
retired list on 31 Dec of the year in which they attain their sixty fifth
birthday.
Article
135 [Tribunals]
(1) The Administrative Court
pronounces judgment through tribunals which shall be constituted by the
plenary assembly from members of the Administrative Court.
(2) Business shall, for
the period provided by Federal law, be allocated by the plenary assembly
in advance among the tribunals.
(3) A matter devolving upon
a member in accordance with this allocation may be removed from his jurisdiction
only in case of his being prevented from the discharge of his responsibilities.
(4) Article 89
applies analogously to the Administrative Court.
Article
136 [Standing Orders]
Detailed provisions about
establishment, scope, and procedure of the Administrative Court will be
prescribed in a special Federal law and Standing Orders be passed on the
basis of this by the plenary assembly.
Part B The Constitutional Court
Article
137 [Pecuniary Claims]
The Constitutional Court.
pronounces on pecuniary claims of the Federation, the States, the Districts,
the Counties and County Associations which cannot be settled by ordinary
legal process nor be liquidated by the ruling of an administrative authority.
Article
138 [Conflicts of Competence]
(1) The Constitutional Court
also pronounces on conflicts of competence:
a) between courts and administrative
authorities;
b) between the Administrative
Court and all other courts, in particular between the Administrative Court
and the Constitutional Court itself, as well as between the ordinary courts
and other courts;
c) between the States as
well as between a State and the Federation.
(2) The Constitutional Court
furthermore determines at the application of the Federal Government, or
a State Government whether an act of legislation or execution falls into
the competence of the Federation or the States.
Article
138a [Competence Agreements]
(1) The Constitutional Court
establishes on application by the Federal Government or a State Government
concerned whether an agreement within the meaning of Article 15a
(1) exists and whether the obligations arising from such an agreement,
save in so far as it is a matter of pecuniary claims, have been fulfilled.
(2) If it is stipulated
in an agreement within the meaning of Article 15a (2),
the Court also establishes on application by a State Government concerned
whether such an agreement exists and whether the obligations arising from
such an agreement, save in so far as it is a matter of pecuniary claims,
have been fulfilled.
Article
139 [Ordinances]
(1) The Constitutional Court
pronounces on application by a court whether ordinances issued by a Federal
or State authority are contrary to law, but ex officio in so far
as the Court would have to apply such an ordinance in a pending suit. It
also pronounces on application by the Federal Government whether ordinances
issued by a State authority are contrary to law, and likewise on application
by the County concerned whether ordinances issued by a County supervisory
authority in accordance with Article 119a (6) are
contrary to law. It also pronounces whether ordinances are contrary to
law when an application alleges direct infringement of personal rights
through such illegality in so far as the ordinance has become operative
for the applicant without the delivery of a judicial decision or the issue
of a ruling; Article 8 (3) applies analogously to
such applications.
(2) If the litigant in a
suit lodged with the Constitutional Court, entailing application of an
ordinance by the Administrative Court, receives satisfaction, the proceedings
initiated to examine the ordinance's legality shall nevertheless continue.
(3) The Constitutional Court
may rescind an ordinance as contrary to law only to the extent that its
rescission was expressly submitted or the Court would have had to apply
it in the pending suit. If the Court reaches the conclusion that the whole
ordinance
a) has no foundation in
law;
b) was issued by an authority
without competence in the matter; or
c) was published in a manner
contrary to law,
it shall rescind the whole
ordinance as illegal. This does not apply if rescission of the whole ordinance
manifestly runs contrary to the legitimate interests of the litigant who
has filed an application pursuant to the last sentence in Paragraph (1)
or whose suit has been the occasion for the initiation of ex officio
examination proceedings into the ordinance.
(4) If the ordinance has,
at the time of the Constitutional Court's delivery of its judgment, already
been repealed and the proceedings were initiated ex officio or the
application was filed by a court or an applicant alleging direct infringement
of his personal rights through the ordinance's illegality, the Court must
pronounce whether the ordinance contravened the law. Paragraph (3) applies
analogously.
(5) The judgment by the
Constitutional Court which rescinds an ordinance as contrary to law imposes
on the highest competent authority in the Federation or State the obligation
to publish the rescission without delay. This applies analogously in the
case of a pronouncement pursuant to Paragraph (4) above. The rescission
enters into force on the day of publication if the Court does not set a
deadline, which may not exceed six months or, if legal dispositions are
necessary, a year, for the rescission.
(6) If an ordinance has
been rescinded on the score of illegality or if the Constitutional Court
has pursuant to Paragraph (4) pronounced an ordinance to be contrary to
law, all courts and administrative authorities are bound by the Court's
decision. The ordinance shall, however, continue to apply to the circumstances
effected before the rescission, the case in point excepted, unless the
Court in its rescissory judgment decides otherwise. If the Court has in
its rescissory judgment set a deadline pursuant to Paragraph (5), the ordinance
shall apply to all the circumstances effected, the case in point excepted,
till the expiry of this deadline.
Article
139a [Legal Norms]
The Constitutional Court
pronounces on application by a court whether in the re-publication of a
legal norm the limits of the authority conferred were transcended; ex
officio, in so far as the re-publication of the legal norm constitutes
the prerequisite to a judgment by the Court itself; also on application
by a State Government, in the case of legal norms re-published by the Federation.
Likewise on application by the Federal Government in the case of legal
norms republished by a State. It pronounces furthermore whether in the
re-publication of a legal norm the limits of the authority conferred were
transcended when an application alleges direct infringement of personal
rights in so far as the republished legal norm has become operative against
the applicant without the delivery of a judicial decision or the issue
of a ruling. Article 59 (2), (3) and (5) as well as
Article 139 (2) to (6) apply analogously.
Article
140 [Laws]
(1) The Constitutional Court
pronounces on application by the Administrative Court, the Supreme Court,
or a competent appellate court whether a Federal or State law is unconstitutional,
but ex officio in so far as the Court would have to apply such a
law in a pending suit. It pronounces also on application by the Federal
Government whether State laws are unconstitutional and likewise on application
by a State Government or by one third of the House of Representatives'
members whether Federal laws are unconstitutional. A State constitutional
law can provide that such a right of application as regards the unconstitutionality
of State laws lies with one third of the State Parliament's members. The
Court also pronounces whether laws are unconstitutional when an application
alleges direct infringement of personal rights through such unconstitutionality
in so far as the law has become operative for the applicant without the
delivery of a judicial decision or the issue of a ruling. Article 89
(3) applies analogously to such applications.
(2) If the litigant in a
suit lodged with the Constitutional Court, entailing application of a law
by the Court receives satisfaction, the proceedings initiated to examine
the law's constitutionality shall nevertheless continue.
(3) The Constitutional Court
may rescind a law as unconstitutional only to the extent that its rescission
was expressly submitted or the Court would have to apply the law in the
suit pending with it. If, however, the Court concludes that the whole law
was enacted by a legislative authority unqualified in accordance with the
allocation of competence or published in an unconstitutional manner, it
shall rescind the whole law as unconstitutional. This does not apply if
rescission of the whole law manifestly runs contrary to the legitimate
interests of the litigant who has filed an application pursuant to the
last sentence in Paragraph (1) or whose suit has been the occasion for
the initiation of ex officio examination proceedings into the law.
(4) If the law has, at the
time of the Constitutional Court's delivery of its judgment, already been
repealed and the proceedings were initiated ex officio or the application
filed by a court or an applicant alleging direct infringement of personal
rights through the law's unconstitutionality, the Court must pronounce
whether the law was unconstitutional. Paragraph (3) applies analogously.
(5) The judgment by the
Constitutional Court which rescinds a law as unconstitutional imposes on
the Federal Chancellor or the competent State-Governor the obligation to
publish the rescission without delay. This applies analogously in the case
of a pronouncement pursuant to Paragraph (4). The rescission enters into
force on the day of publication if the Court does not set a deadline for
the rescission. This deadline may not exceed one year.
(6) If a law is rescinded
as unconstitutional by a judgment of the Constitutional Court, the legal
provisions rescinded by the law which the Court has pronounced unconstitutional
become effective again, unless the judgment pronounces otherwise, on the
day of entry into force of the rescission. The publication on the rescission
of the law shall also announce whether and which legal provisions again
enter into force.
(7) If a law has been rescinded
on the score of unconstitutionality or if the Constitutional Court has,
pursuant to Paragraph (4), pronounced a law unconstitutional, all courts
and administrative authorities are bound by the Court's decision. The law
shall, however, continue to apply to the circumstances effected before
the rescission, the case in point excepted, unless the Court in its rescissory
judgment decides otherwise. If the Court has in its rescissory judgment
set a deadline pursuant to Paragraph (5), the law shall apply to all the
circumstances effected, the case in point excepted, till the expiry of
this deadline.
Article
140a [Treaties]
(1) Article 140
shall apply to treaties concluded pursuant to Article
50
with the sanction of the House of Representatives and correspondingly Article
139 to all other treaties with the provision that
the authorities competent for their execution shall, from the day of the
judgment's publication, not apply those which the Court establishes as
being contrary to law or unconstitutional unless it determines a deadline
prior to which such a treaty shall continue to be applied. The deadline
may not exceed two years in the case of treaties specified in Article 50
and one year in the case of all others.
(2) If the Constitutional
Court establishes that a treaty whose fulfillment requires the issue of
laws or ordinances is contrary to law or unconstitutional, the effect of
the vote in accordance with Article 50 (2) or of the
ordinance in accordance with Article 65 (1) second sentence
expires.
Article
141 [Elections]
(1) The Constitutional Court
pronounces upon:
a) challenges to the election
of the Federal President and elections to the popular representative bodies
or the constituent authorities (representative bodies) of statutory professional
associations;
b) challenges to elections
to a State Government and to local authorities entrusted with executive
power;
c) application by a popular
representative body for a loss of seat by one of its members;
d) application by a constituent
authority (representative body) of a statutory professional associations
for a loss of seat by one of the members of such an authority;
e) the challenge to rulings
whereby the loss of a seat in a popular representative body, in a local
authority entrusted with executive power or in a constituent authority
(representative body) of a statutory professional association has been
enunciated, in so far as laws of the Federation or States governing elections
provide for declaration of a loss of seat by the ruling of an administrative
authority, and after all stages of legal remedy have been exhausted.
f) The challenge (application)
can be based on the alleged illegality of the electoral procedure or on
a reason provided by law for the loss of membership in a popular representative
body, in a local authority entrusted with executive power, or in a constituent
authority (representative body) of a statutory professional association.
The Court shall allow an electoral challenge if the alleged illegality
has been proved and was of influence on the election result. In the proceedings
before the administrative authorities, the popular representative body
or statutory professional association has litigant status.
(2) If a challenge pursuant
to Paragraph (1)(a) is allowed and it thereby becomes necessary to hold
the House of Representatives or a State Parliament election in whole or
in part again, the representative body's members concerned lose their seat
at the time when it is assumed by those elected at the ballot which has
to be held within a hundred days after delivery of the Constitutional Court's
decision.
(3) The premise for a decision
by the Constitutional Court in challenges to the result of initiatives
or referenda will be prescribed by Federal law. How long, in view of the
possibility of such a challenge, it is necessary to retard publication
of the law about which a referendum took place, can also be enacted by
Federal law.
Article
142 [Liability of Officers]
(1) The Constitutional Court
pronounces on suits which predicate the constitutional responsibility of
the highest Federal and State authorities for legal contraventions culpably
ensuing from their official activity.
(2) Suit can be brought:
a) against the Federal President,
for contravention of the Federal Constitution: by a vote of the Federal
Assembly;
b) against members of the
Federal Government and the authorities placed with regard to responsibility
on an equal footing with them, for contravention of the law: by a vote
of the House of Representatives;
c) against members of a
State Government and the authorities placed by the present law or the State
constitution with regard to responsibility on an equal footing with therm,
for contravention of the law: by a vote of the competent State Parliament;
d) against a State-Governor,
his deputy (Article 105 (1)) or a member of the State
Government (Article 103 (2) and (3)) for contravention
of the law as well as for non-compliance with ordinances or other directives
(instructions) of the Federation in matters pertaining to the indirect
Federal administration, in the case of a member of the State Government
also with regard to instructions from the State-Governor in these matters:
by a vote of the Federal Government;
e) against the authorities
of the Federal capital, Vienna, in so far as within its autonomous sphere
of competence they perform functions from the domain of the Federal executive
power, for contravention of the law: by a vote of the Federal Government;
f) against a State-Governor,
for non-compliance with an instruction pursuant to Article 14
(8) by a vote of the Federal Government;
g) against a president or
executive president of a State school board, for contravention of the law
as well as for non-compliance with ordinances or other directives (instructions)
of the Federation: by a vote of the Federal Government.
(3) If, pursuant to Paragraph
(2)(d), the Federal Government brings a suit only against a State-Governor
or his deputy and it is shown that another member of the State Government
in accordance with Article 103 (2) concerned with
matters pertaining to the indirect Federal administration is guilty of
an offence within the meaning of Paragraph (2)(d), the Federal Government
can at any time pending the passing of judgment widen its suit to include
this member of the State Government.
(4) The condemnation by
the Constitutional Court shall pronounce a forfeiture of office and, in
particularly aggravating circumstances, also a temporary forfeiture of
political rights. In the case of minor legal contraventions in the instances
mentioned in Paragraph (2)(d), (f), and (g) the Court can confine itself
to the statement that the law has been contravened. From forfeiture of
the office of president of the State school board ensues forfeiture of
the office with which pursuant to Article 81a (3)(b)
it is linked.
(5) The Federal President
can avail himself of the right vested in him in accordance with Article
65 (2)(c) in the cases under Paragraph (2)(a), (b),
and (c) only on the request of the representative body which has voted
for the filing of the suit, in cases under Sub-Paragraphs (d), (f), and
(g) only on the request of the Federal Government, and in all cases only
with the approval of the defendant.
Article
143 [Criminal Liability of Officers]
A suit can be brought against
the persons mentioned in Article 142 also on the score
of actions involving penal proceedings connected with the activity in office
of the individual to be arraigned. In this case, competence lies exclusively
with the Constitutional Court; any investigation already pending in the
ordinary criminal courts devolves upon it. The Court can in such cases,
in addition to Article 142 (4), apply the provisions
of the criminal law.
Article
144 [Administrative Jurisdiction]
(1) The Constitutional Court
pronounces on rulings by administrative authorities in so far as the applicant
alleges an infringement by the ruling of a constitutionally guaranteed
right or the infringement of personal rights on the score of an illegal
ordinance, an unconstitutional law, or an unlawful treaty. On the same
premises, the Court likewise pronounces on complaints against the exercise
of direct administrative power and compulsion against a particular individual.
The complaint can only be filed after all other stages of legal remedy,
in so far as such come into consideration, have been exhausted.
(2) The Constitutional Court
can, before the proceedings, decide to reject a hearing of the complaint
if it has no reasonable prospect of success. The rejection of the hearing
is inadmissible if it concerns a case that according to Article 133
is barred from the competence of the Administrative Court.
(3) If the Constitutional
Court finds that a right within the meaning of Paragraph (1) has not been
infringed by the challenged ruling or the exercises of direct administrative
power and compulsion, and if it does not concern a case that in accordance
with Article 133 is barred from the competence of
the Administrative Court, the Court shall, on the request of the applicant,
at the same time as it rejects the plea transfer the complaint to the Administrative
Court for decision whether the applicant, by the ruling or the exercise
of direct administrative power and compulsion, sustained the infringement
of any other right. This applies analogously in the case of decisions in
accordance with Paragraph (2).
Article
145 [International Law]
The Constitutional Court
pronounces judgment on contraventions of international law in accordance
with the provisions of a special Federal law.
Article
146 [Enforcement]
(1) The enforcement of judgments
pronounced by the Constitutional Court on claims made in accordance with
Article 137 is implemented by the ordinary courts.
(2) The enforcement of other
judgments by the Constitutional Court is incumbent on the Federal President.
Implementation shall, in accordance with his instructions, lie with the
Federation or States authorities, including the Federal Army, appointed
at his discretion for the purpose. The request to the Federal President
for the enforcement of such judgments shall be made by the Constitutional
Court. The aforementioned instructions by the Federal President require,
if it is a matter of enforcements against the Federation or Federal authorities,
no countersignature in accordance with Article 67.
Article
147 [Establishment]
(1) The Constitutional Court
consists of a President, a Vice-President, twelve additional members, and
six substitute members.
(2) The President, the Vice-President,
six additional members, and three substitute members are appointed by the
Federal President on the recommendation of the Federal Government; these
members shall be selected from among judges, administrative officials,
and professors holding a chair in law. The remaining six members and three
substitute members are appointed by the Federal President on the basis
of recommendations listing three candidates for each vacancy, the House
of Representatives submitting those for three members and two substitute
members and the Senate those for three members and one substitute member.
Three members and two substitute members must have their domicile outside
the Federal capital, Vienna. Administrative officials who are appointed
members of the Constitutional Court shall, in so far and for as long as
they are not superannuated, be freed from all official duties.
(3) The President, the Vice-President,
and the other members and substitute members must have completed their
studies in law and political science and for at least ten years have held
a professional appointment which prescribes the completion of these studies.
(4) The following cannot
belong to the Constitutional Court:
members of the Federal Government
or a State Government, members of the House of Representatives, the Senate,
or any other popular representative body; for members of these representative
bodies who have been elected for a fixed term of legislation or office
such incompatibility continues until the expiry of that term of legislation
or office. Finally, persons who are under employment of or hold office
in a political party cannot belong to the Constitutional Court.
(5) Anyone who, during the
preceding four years, has exercised one of the functions specified in Paragraph
(4), cannot be appointed President or Vice-President of the Constitutional
Court.
(6) Articles 87
(1) and (2), 88 (2) apply to members of the Constitutional
Court; detailed provisions will be prescribed in the Federal law to be
promulgated pursuant to Article 148. The 31 Dec of
the year in which a judge completes his seventieth year of life is fixed
as the age limit on whose attainment his term of office ends.
(7) If a member or substitute
member disregards without satisfactory excuse three successive requests
to attend a hearing of the Constitutional Court, the Court shall formally
establish the fact after listening to his testimony. Establishment of the
fact entails loss of membership or the status of substitute membership.
Article
148 [Organizational Law]
Detailed provisions about
the organization and procedure of the Constitutional Court will be prescribed
by a special Federal law and in Standing Orders to be voted by the Constitutional
Court on the basis of this.
Article
148a [Standing, Investigation, Independence]
(1) Everyone can lodge complaint
with the Ombudsmen
Council against alleged maladministration by the Federation, including
its activity as a holder of private rights, provided that they are affected
by such maladministration and in so far as they do not or no longer have
recourse to legal remedy. All such complaints must be investigated by the
Ombudsmen Council. The complainant shall be informed of the investigation's
outcome and what action, if necessary, has been taken.
(2) The Ombudsmen Council
is ex officio entitled to investigate its suspicions of maladministration
by the Federation including its activity as a holder of private rights.
(3) The Ombudsmen Council
is independent in the exercise of its authority.
Article
148b [State Support, Secrecy]
(1) All Federal, State,
and County authorities shall support the Ombudsmen Council in the performance
of its tasks, allow it inspection of its records, and upon request furnish
the information required. Official secrecy is inoperative in the case of
the Ombudsmen Council.
(2) The Ombudsmen Council
must observe official secrecy to the same degree as the authority whom
it has approached in the fulfillment of its tasks. The Ombudsmen Council
is however bound by the observation of official secrecy in its reports
to the House of Representatives only in so far as this is requisite on
behalf of the interest of the parties concerned or of national security.
Article
148c [Recommendations]
The Ombudsmen Council can
issue to the authorities entrusted with the Federation's highest administrative
business recommendations on measures to be taken in or by reason of a particular
case. The authority concerned must within a deadline to be settled by Federal
law either conform to these recommendations and inform the Ombudsmen Council
accordingly or state in writing why the recommendations have not been complied
with.
Article
148d [Annual Report]
The Ombudsmen Council shall
annually render the House of Representatives a report on its activity.
Article
148e [Court Application]
On application by the Ombudsmen
Council, the Constitutional Court pronounces on the illegality or otherwise
of ordinances by a Federal authority.
Article
148f [Ruling on Interpretation]
If differences of opinion
arise between the Ombudsmen Council and the Federal Government or a Federal
Minister on the interpretation of legal provisions, the Constitutional
Court, on application by the Federal Government or the Ombudsmen Council,
decides the matter in closed proceedings.
Article
148g [Establishment]
(1) The Ombudsmen Council
has its seat in Vienna and consists of three members, one of whom acts
in turn as chairman. The term of office lasts six years. Reelection of
the Ombudsmen Council's members more than once is inadmissible.
(2) Ombudsmen Council members
are elected by the House of Representatives on the basis of a joint recommendation
drawn up by the Main Committee in the presence of at least half its members.
Each of the three parties with the largest number of votes in the House
of Representatives is entitled to nominate one member for this recommendation.
The members of the Ombudsmen Council render an affirmation to the Federal
President before their assumption of office.
(3) The Ombudsmen Council
chairmanship rotates annually between the members in the sequence of the
voting strength possessed by the parties who have nominated them. This
sequence remains unchanged during the Ombudsmen Council's term of office.
(4) Should a Ombudsmen Council
member retire prematurely, the party represented in the House of Representatives
who nominated this member shall nominate a new member. The new election
shall pursuant to Paragraph (2) be operative for the remaining term of
office.
(5) Ombudsmen Council members
must be eligible for the House of Representatives; during their service
in office, they may belong neither to the Federal Government nor to a State
government nor to any popular representative body and they may not practice
any other profession.
Article
148h [Appointment]
(1) Ombudsmen Council officials
are appointed by the Federal President on the recommendation and with the
countersignature of the Ombudsmen Council chairman. The Federal President
can however authorize him to appoint officials in certain categories. Auxiliary
personnel is appointed by the chairman who is to this extent the highest
administrative authority and exercises these powers in his own right.
(2) The Federation's service
prerogative with regard to Ombudsmen Council employees is exercised by
the Ombudsmen Council chairman.
(3) The Ombudsmen Council
determines its Standing Orders and an allocation of business that regulates
which tasks shall be autonomously performed by its members. The adoption
of the Standing Orders and the allocation of business requires the unanimous
vote of the Ombudsmen Council's members.
Article
148i [State Matters]
(1) The States can by State
constitutional law declare the Ombudsmen Council competent also in the
sphere of the particular State's administration. In such case Articles
148e and 148f shall apply analogously.
(2) If States create agencies
in the sphere of State administration with tasks similar to the Ombudsmen
Council, State constitutional law can prescribe a provision corresponding
to Articles 148e and 148f.
Article
148j [Ombudsmen Law]
Detailed provisions relating
to the implementation of this chapter shall be made by Federal constitutional
law.
Article
149 [Old Laws]
(1) In addition to the present
law, the following laws, with the modifications necessitated by this law,
shall, within the meaning of Article 44 (1), be regarded
as constitutional law:
- Basic Law of 21 Dec 1867
on the general rights of nationals in the kingdoms and States represented
in the Reichs' Congress;
- Law of 27 Oct 1862 on
protection of personal liberty;
- Law of 27 Oct 1862 on
protection of the rights of the home;
- Resolution of the Provisional
National Assembly of 30 Oct 1918;
- Law of 3 April 1919 respecting
the banishment and expropriation of property of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine;
- Law of 3 April 1919 on
the abolition of the nobility, the secular orders of chivalry, male and
female, and of certain titles and dignities;
- Law of 8 May 1919 on the
coat of arms and seal of state of the Republic of German-Austria, with
the modifications effected by Arts. 2, 5, and 6 of the law of 21 Oct 1919;
- Section V of Part III
of the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 Sep 1919.
(2) Article 20 of the Basic
Law of 21 Dec 1867 as well as the Law of 5 May 1869 issued on the basis
of this Article are repealed.
Article
150 [Transitional Law]
The transition to the Federal
Constitution introduced by this law will be prescribed in a special law
entering into force simultaneously with the present law.
Article
151 [Responsibility]
The execution of this law
is entrusted to the Federal Government.
..