Military Authorization Act

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Basic data
Title: Military Authorization Act
Long title: Federal law on tasks and powers in the context of national military defense
Abbreviation: MBG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Republic of Austria
Legal matter: Military law
Reference: Federal Law Gazette I No. 86/2000
Date of law: August 10, 2000
Effective date: July 1, 2001
Last change: Federal Law Gazette I No. 102/2019
Legal text: Military Authorization Act
Please note the note on the applicable legal version !

The Austrian Military Authorities Act ( MBG ) is a federal law and regulates the powers of soldiers in the Federal Army and members of the Army Administration in the context of national military defense.

background

According to Article 79 of the Federal Constitutional Law (B-VG), the armed forces are responsible for national military defense.

Before the MBG came into force, the powers of the military guards and the intelligence services ( Army Intelligence Office and Abwehramt ) were partially not or only partially standardized by law. For example, the use of weapons to avert danger in guard duty was essentially regulated by a provision from the Military Criminal Law of 1855, which was valid through various amendments as part of the Code of Criminal Procedure or thereafter as an appendix to the Military Criminal Law. Due to the progressive legal standardization of the powers of the state organs in the area of ​​exercising command and coercive power as well as the intelligence services (e.g. through the Security Police Act that came into force in 1993 ), the Federal Ministry of National Defense drafted the Military Authorization Act.

At the same time, the military performance law was transferred from the Military Performance Act, which was in force until then, to the new MBG, definitions of terms and the introduction of the legal protection officer for the intelligence services sector.

The MBG came into force on July 1, 2001 and has been amended several times since then (most recently through the 2019 Defense Law Amendment).

structure

The MBG is divided into five parts, with the first mainly defining terms and general regulations, the second defining the tasks and powers in the security service and in the context of intelligence defense, the third the military right to perform, the fourth the provisions on legal protection and the fifth Penal and final provisions are included.

content

In the first paragraph definitions are made and the demarcation from the security police in accordance with the Security Police Act is regulated. If there is a behavior against which the military self-protection is directed in a general danger according to § 16 Paragraph 1 of the Security Police Act (SPG), military organs are only subsidiary responsible (§ 2 Paragraph 2 MBG). In practice, this means that the exercise of military powers for self-protection is essentially limited to immediate initial measures to avert danger .

Sections 6 to 19 regulate the military guard duty and the exercise of authority in the context of the same, for example by eviction, control, search or arrest of persons or the exercise of direct coercive force. By decision of January 23, 2004, the Constitutional Court (VfGH) had, among other things, § 11 Paragraph 1 and § 11 Paragraph 5 MBG in their original version, which regulate the provisional arrest, with effect from December 31, 2004 for violations of the Federal Constitutional Law on the protection of personal freedom (PersFrBVG) repealed as unconstitutional.

The (life-threatening) use of weapons is also regulated, analogous to the Weapons Use Act 1969 , as well as entering property, rooms and vehicles to avert danger and to secure property. According to § 2 MBG, the military guard service serves to protect against threatening and defend against current attacks against military legal interests or to protect or defend against comparable facts of administrative offenses that are directed against military legal interests .

Sections 20 to 25 regulate defense by the intelligence service, including the powers of the intelligence services, for example in the context of observation or the implementation of reliability checks.

Section 26 regulates military airspace surveillance.

Sections 27 to 42 (3rd part) contain the new military performance law, which was essentially taken over from the Military Performance Act. It serves to cover the most urgent material needs of the army in matters of national military defense and standardizes the possibility of intervention in the basic rights to property and freedom of employment.

The remaining paragraphs regulate any compensation in the event of damage caused by the exercise of authority, the tasks of the legal protection officer and criminal provisions, for example for non-compliance with a removal order.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Government bill . Federal law introducing a federal law on tasks and powers in the context of national military defense (Military Authority Act - MBG) and amending the Restricted Area Act 1995. In: Supplements to the stenographic minutes of the National Council XXI. GP. Parliamentary Directorate, May 31, 2000, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  2. Federal Constitutional Law of November 29, 1988 on the Protection of Personal Freedom RIS , accessed on December 15, 2019
  3. VfGH, decision of January 23, 2004 - G 363 / 02-13 p. 82 ff.