Vorarlberg Bar Association

The Vorarlberg Bar Association is the professional organization in Vorarlberg established lawyers and trainee lawyers. The Bar Association has its seat in the city of Feldkirch , where the Feldkirch Regional Court is also the highest body of ordinary jurisdiction in Vorarlberg. Birgitt Breinbauer is currently the President of the Vorarlberg Bar Association.

history

Vorarlberg lawyers were given their own professional representation for the first time in 1869. Up to this point in time, the then eight Vorarlberg lawyers were under the direct supervision of the courts and under administrative law of the Tyrolean Bar Association. The first president of the newly founded Vorarlberg Bar Association was the Feldkirch lawyer Anton Jussel , who later became Governor of Vorarlberg. Until 1931, disciplinary jurisdiction over the Vorarlberg lawyers lay with the Tyrolean Bar Association. During the time of the corporate state in Austria, i.e. from 1933 to 1938, the chamber officials were no longer appointed by the general assembly of lawyers, but by the Minister of Justice . With the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938, any autonomy of the Bar Association ended and the Vorarlberg lawyers were subsequently appointed by the Reich Minister of Justice.

After the liberation of Austria by the Allies and the regaining of Vorarlberg sovereignty in 1945, Gottfried Riccabona , who had been President of the Chamber before 1938, was elected President of the Vorarlberg Bar Association. He was subsequently heavily involved in the negotiations on the restoration of jurisdiction and the bar association.

organization

The professional representation is a member of the Austrian Bar Association , an association of the bar associations of all Austrian federal states. Organizationally, the Bar Association is a public corporation with the right to autonomous self-administration and limited sovereign powers.

The areas of responsibility of the Vorarlberg Bar Association range from representing lawyers to assessing laws and drawing up reports to monitoring compliance with professional obligations by means of disciplinary law . The examinations for trainee lawyers and trainee judges are also carried out by the examination commissioners of the Bar Association.

The highest decision-making body of the Bar Association is the committee, which is elected by the general assembly of Vorarlberger Rechtsanwälte and which is presided over by a president and a vice-president. Attached to this are the disciplinary board and the examination commissioners, who are also appointed by the general assembly.

membership

Membership in the Vorarlberg Bar Association exists for registered attorneys (RA) and trainee attorneys (RAA). The voting rights in the general meeting are unevenly distributed between lawyers and trainee lawyers (approx. 1: 2 - RA: RAA). Associated with membership is the obligation to pay the chamber contribution. In Vorarlberg, an annual average of around 170 to 180 lawyers are admitted (2010). As of August 31, 2013, 232 lawyers and 48 trainee lawyers were registered in Vorarlberg. For comparison: As of December 31, 2012, there were 5,756 lawyers registered in Austria.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ The Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) has ruled in decision G31 / 2013 et al., V20 / 2013 et al., Item 3.3. That in the case of votes in plenary assemblies, the existing regulation of prospective attorneys on a qualified right to vote and have a say should be permissible, if the different weighting satisfies the objective requirement arising from the principle of equality and is compatible with the democratic principle resulting from Art. 120a and Art. 120c B-VG . The weighting of votes in Section 24 (3) last sentence RAO, however, violates these constitutional requirements, because the fundamental equality of votes inherent in the democratic principle is generally broken, without there being a corresponding objective reason for this and because there is no objective differentiating regulation depending on the subject of the decision and different levels of concern of the respective group of members of the Chamber (e.g. the regulations of the allocation and contribution regulations that only apply to trainee lawyers). If it is a matter of matters in which the trainee lawyers are not particularly affected, it is permissible to provide for different weighting of votes (see also Anwalt Aktuell , 6/13, p. 19 and 7/13, p. 5 , Archived copy ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2

↑ There is one lawyer for every 1,600 inhabitants . For comparison: in Liechtenstein there is one lawyer for every 212 inhabitants. In proportion, the supply density of licensed lawyers in Liechtenstein is therefore almost 7 times higher than in Austria or around eight times higher than in Vorarlberg. Mathematically, Vienna has the highest density of lawyers in Austria with 640 residents and Burgenland has the lowest with 4,860 residents.

[1] The Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) has ruled in decision G31 / 2013 et al., V20 / 2013 et al., Item 3.3. That in the case of votes in plenary assemblies, the existing regulation of prospective attorneys on a qualified right to vote and have a say should be permissible, if the different weighting satisfies the objective requirement arising from the principle of equality and is compatible with the democratic principle resulting from Art. 120a and Art. 120c B-VG . The weighting of votes in Section 24 (3) last sentence RAO, however, violates these constitutional requirements, because the fundamental equality of votes inherent in the democratic principle is generally broken, without there being a corresponding objective reason for this and because there is no objective differentiating regulation depending on the subject of the decision and different levels of concern of the respective group of members of the Chamber (e.g. the regulations of the allocation and contribution regulations that only apply to trainee lawyers). If it is a matter of matters in which the trainee lawyers are not particularly affected, it is permissible to provide for different weighting of votes (see also Anwalt Aktuell , 6/13, p. 19 and 7/13, p. 5 , Archived copy ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). @1@ 2

[2] There is one lawyer for every 1,600 inhabitants . For comparison: in Liechtenstein there is one lawyer for every 212 inhabitants. In proportion, the supply density of licensed lawyers in Liechtenstein is therefore almost 7 times higher than in Austria or around eight times higher than in Vorarlberg. Mathematically, Vienna has the highest density of lawyers in Austria with 640 residents and Burgenland has the lowest with 4,860 residents.