Federal Court of Justice (Austria)

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The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) was the highest court in the Austro-fascist Austrian corporate state from 1934 to 1938. It was established in 1934 as the successor to the dissolved highest courts, the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court , and, unlike its predecessor courts , no longer had the power to control government legislation.

Creation of the Federal Court of Justice

After the Federal Government of Dollfuss I had effectively wrested the legislation in Austria from the elected legislative body on March 4, 1933 with the so-called “ self-elimination of parliament ” , the government quickly recognized that the constitutional court , which was still in existence and was partly staffed with judges close to the SDAP (VfGH ) had become a threat to this government course. In order to prevent the ordinances enacted by the government on the basis of the War-Economics Enabling Act from being examined by the Constitutional Court, a procedure was therefore chosen at the suggestion of the Constitutional Court substitute member Robert Hecht that was supposed to render the Constitutional Court just as incapable of action as Parliament had before. To this end, all members of the Constitutional Court close to the government should resign as one, so that the presence required for the decision-making in the Court could no longer be achieved (see for details: Elimination of the Constitutional Court 1933 ). The Administrative Court (VwGH), on the other hand, was not prevented from taking action; its judgments were simply ignored by order of the higher authorities to the sub-authorities. For example, administrative acts declared to be canceled by the Administrative Court were nevertheless carried out by the administrative authorities because the VwGH lacked the enforcement force of its judgments.

Since the VfGH was prevented from taking action by the resignations and the Administrative Court was in fact marginalized by orders to the subordinate authorities, both were completely abolished with the May Constitution of 1934. At the same time, in the May Constitution of May 1, 1934, the Federal Court of Justice was established as the successor to both the Constitutional and the Administrative Court. On July 23, 1934, the Federal Supreme Court Act ( BGBl. 123/1934) was passed, with which the Federal Supreme Court was also established with legal priority. The newly established Court of Justice began its work on July 15, 1934.

Organization and procedure

The Federal Court of Justice was subdivided into senates under its president, Ernst Durig , the previous VfGH president, and a vice-president . As a rule, these senates were designed as a five-member senate, whereby for simpler cases (administrative criminal cases and cases in which the legal question has already been adequately clarified) the composition was intended as a senate with only three members. The establishment of a reinforced Senate of seven members was intended to clarify particularly difficult or fundamental legal questions, as well as in the event of a previous case law of the Federal Court of Justice being abandoned. The “Constitutional Senate” responsible for investigating unconstitutionality consisted of eleven members. The general assembly of the Federal Court of Justice, to which all ordinary and extraordinary members belonged, could also be called to clarify fundamental legal questions.

The competences of the Federal Court of Justice essentially corresponded to those of the Constitutional Court and the Administrative Court before the May constitution. However, the Federal Court of Justice was largely active as an administrative court and recognized the legality of notices . In addition, he was also responsible for late payment complaints , which, however, rarely occurred during the duration of its existence. Only the "Constitutional Senate ", formed specifically on the basis of Art. 179 Paragraph 2 of the 1934 Constitution, decided on the constitutionality of a law or the legality of an ordinance. However, fundamental rights complaints were not sent to this, but to the responsible Senate 10 Enabling Act ordinances issued before July 1, 1934, was withdrawn from the Federal Court of Justice by the Constitutional Transition Act, which meant that it was unable to carry out the judicial review of the constitutionality of these measures feared by the government.

The Federal Court of Justice after the "Anschluss"

As an administrative court (there was no constitutional court in the time of National Socialism ) the court still existed after the annexation to the German Reich until 1941. With § 6 of the "Seventh Regulation on the transfer of tasks and powers of the Reich Governor in Austria (Austrian Provincial Government ) ”On January 11, 1940, it was renamed“ Administrative Court in Vienna ”. As a branch of the Reich Administrative Court in Berlin there was the court under the name "Foreign Office Vienna" until 1945.

After the Second World War , all dictatorial constitutional laws that had been enacted in Austria during the time of National Socialism and before that since 1933 were repealed. This included the authoritarian May constitution in particular . This withdrew the legal basis for the possible re-establishment of the Federal Court of Justice. Administrative and constitutional jurisdiction have been divided again since 1945.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Thomas Zavadil: The elimination of the Constitutional Court in 1933 . Vienna 1997 (diploma thesis in the humanities at the University of Vienna).
  2. Peter Huemer : Section Head Robert Hecht and the Destruction of Democracy in Austria . Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7028-0084-0 , Chapter: The elimination of the Constitutional Court , p. 178-192 .
  3. Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal : The Federal Court of Justice 1934-1938 . In: Clemens Jabloner , Dieter Kolonovits, Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer , Hans René Laurer, Heinz Mayer , Rudolf Thienel (eds.): Commemorative Robert Walter . Manz'sche publishing and university bookstore , 2013, ISBN 978-3-214-00453-8 , p. 661 .
  4. ^ Adolf Julius Merkl : The class-authoritarian constitution of Austria. A critical-systematic plan . Springer-Verlag , Vienna 1935.
  5. BGBl. 123/1934. In:  Federal Law Gazette for the Federal State of Austria , year 1934, p. 301 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bgl
  6. a b Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal : The Federal Court of Justice 1934–1938 . In: Clemens Jabloner , Dieter Kolonovits, Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer , Hans René Laurer, Heinz Mayer , Rudolf Thienel (eds.): Commemorative Robert Walter . Manz'sche publishing and university bookstore , 2013, ISBN 978-3-214-00453-8 , p. 662 ff .
  7. RGBl. I, p. 55
  8. This was with the Fuehrer's decree of April 3, 1941 [RGBl. I 1941, 201]
  9. Thomas Olechowski : The introduction of administrative jurisdiction in Austria (=  Austrian legal studies . Volume 52 ). Manz'sche Verlags- und Universitätsbuchhandlung , Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-214-07952-2 , Chapter: From the Federal Court of Justice to the Reich Administrative Court , p. 247-249 .