Vienna Bar Association

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The Vienna Bar Association is the professional organization of the Vienna established lawyers and trainee lawyers. The bar association has its seat in the federal capital Vienna, where with the Constitutional Court , the Administrative Court and the Supreme Court are also the highest organs of the judiciary in Austria. Michael Auer is currently President of the Vienna Bar Association.

history

In 1841 an association for a library for all lawyers with free access to reading and club rooms is created (dissolved in 1938, re-established in 1954/55).

Eugen Megerle von Mühlfeld , among other things dean of the law faculty at the University of Vienna as well as board member of the bar, initiated the establishment of the bar in Vienna with Justice Minister Anton von Schmerling in 1850. Even before the official state approval, Mühlfeld was elected President, a statute and rules of procedure were drawn up, and a chamber seat and staff were selected. In 1851 the lawyers of the district court towns of Lower Austria joined the Vienna Chamber of Lawyers. 1861 all other lawyers in Lower Austria. The bar association is given the name "Lower Austrian Bar Association".

The lawyers' regulation (RGBO 96) created on July 6th, 1868 contained the most important core areas of the legal professional rules. Among other things was

  • the area of ​​activity of the Chamber's Committee is extended to include the right to keep lists of lawyers residing in the chamber district (lawyers' register, matriculation) and
  • The committee was allowed to issue opinions on the appropriateness of attorney's fees and
  • try to reach an amicable settlement in the event of disputes between chamber members.

In addition, the law firm was released. By law of April 1, 1872, the bar associations were given the supervision and disciplinary authority over the lawyers entered on the list of lawyers. The system established at that time largely exists to this day.

After 1887, the pension association for lawyers and lawyers was founded. In 1893 a statute of the health insurance for lawyers followed and in 1894 the Lower Austrian Advokatenhilfskasse. In 1900 the Vienna RAK began sending messages to members. From 1901 further training seminars are offered for prospective attorneys. By law in 1919 the designation “Advokat” was renamed “Rechtsanwalt”, “Advokaturkandidat” was renamed “Legal trainee” and the “Advokatenkammer” was renamed “Rechtsanwaltskammer” (as was customary in Germany since the 1878 Lawyers' Act).

As a result of the dissolution of the Danube Monarchy in 1918, many lawyers from the German-speaking countries of the former monarchy settled in the rump state of German-Austria and the number of lawyers in the relatively small state increased considerably. The introduction of a numerus clausus for lawyers and trainee lawyers was discussed and partially approved by the chambers. It was decided to conduct a written survey for the whole of Austria, which the Vienna Chamber agreed to carry out. This questioning was not carried out, however, because the Economic Organization in Vienna, at its meeting in spring 1927, voted with an overwhelming majority in favor of maintaining the legal basis and not introducing legal blocking measures.

Through the Treaty of Trianon (1920) the then "German West Hungary" was to be ceded to the new Republic of Austria. In 1921 the land acquisition of Burgenland came to an end; the newly added country was then renamed Burgenland. The lawyers from Burgenland were incorporated into the “Bar Association in Vienna” until 1924. The chamber thus included all admitted lawyers from Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna.

In 1928 the legal pension fund was founded. On June 19, 1950, a new pension fund was set up.

With the introduction of the corporate state in Austria (beginning in March 1933) and measures based on the KWEG , a number of ordinances have been issued, whereby “special measures to prevent the damage to economic life associated with disrupting public peace, order and security “Had been hit. Eleven of these ordinances also affected the legal profession and were able to impose barriers on the previously largely independent legal profession. The self-government of the chamber was also considerably restricted by the ordinance of March 31, 1934, as the mandates of the committees of the bar associations were declared to be lapsed if the holder had belonged to the social democratic party or an organization influenced by it at the time of his election. New and replacement elections were also banned. On January 1, 1936, officials appointed by the Federal Ministry of Justice of the corporate state were appointed to replace the elected committees of the chambers and their presidia.

The “Permanent Assembly of Representatives of the Austrian Bar Association” (StVV) should have been replaced by a “Federal Chamber of Lawyers”. With the annexation of Austria to the German Reich (see: Austria in the time of National Socialism ) the autonomy ( self-administration ) of the Austrian bar associations was also soon completely eliminated. Numerous lawyers registered in Vienna have been removed from the list. The causes were war services and the ordinance of March 31, 1938, which prohibited Jewish lawyers from practicing their profession. The ordinance of September 27, 1938 also meant that “ Jewish half-breeds ” had to be deleted from the list of lawyers by the end of 1938 (on March 13, 1938, 2541 lawyers were registered, on December 31, 1938 only 771).

After the war, the law of July 31, 1945 put the Lawyers' Act and the Disciplinary Statute in the version of March 13, 1938 into force again. Due to the occupation of Austria , however, self-government of the chambers, as was the case before 1933, was not yet possible. The attorneys present in Vienna decided on April 16, 1945 to rebuild the chamber. Emerich Hunna is appointed President of the Chamber.

In 1957 the “Bar Association in Vienna” is renamed “Bar Association for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland”.

In 1969 Walter Schuppich was elected President and remained so for 24 years. One therefore speaks of the "Schuppich era".

In 1970, the Vienna Bar Association created a “first legal information” for the population seeking law as a service facility.

In 1988, the "Bar Association for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland" became the Lower Austrian Bar Association , the Burgenland Bar Association and the "Vienna 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 Vienna 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 Vienna Lawyers and is chaired by a president and three vice-presidents. Attached to this are the disciplinary board and the examination commissioners, who are also appointed by the general assembly.

membership

Membership of the Vienna Bar Association exists for registered lawyers (RA) and trainee lawyers (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. As of November 1, 2013, there were 2,743 lawyers registered in Vienna (for comparison: around 2,600 lawyers were registered in the Chamber of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland as early as 1926. The ratio of registered members of the Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland Bar Association to the rest of Austria was therefore around 2,600 : 700 (3.7: 1). In 2013 (November 1st) the ratio of the Vienna Bar Association (excluding Lower Austria and Burgenland) was 1: 1.15 or RAK Vienna-Lower Austria-Burgenland to the rest of Austria 1.2 :1).

literature

  • Peter Wrabetz: Austria's lawyers past and present . 2nd Edition. Austria , Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-7046-5269-0 .
  • Friedrich Kübl (Ed. By Doris Ströher): History of the Austrian lawyer (=  series of publications of the Austrian Bar Association . Volume 3 ). 3. Edition. Austrian Bar Association , Vienna 1981, DNB  810996855 .
  • Ernst Jahoda: History of the Austrian Advocacy 1918–1973 (=  series of publications of the Austrian Bar Association . Volume 1 ). 1st edition. Austrian Bar Association , Vienna 1978, DNB  850966914 .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ This paragraph was based heavily on excerpts from "The History of the Chamber", published by the RAK Vienna [1] . Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  2. ↑ The lawyer is admitted to the lawyer book (list of lawyers) without official approval and thus receives his professional license if the legal requirements are met.
  3. ↑ RGBl. No. 40 concerning the handling of disciplinary authority over advocates and advocate candidates.
  4. ↑ See e.g. B. Disciplinary statute of June 28, 1990, ÖBGBl 474.
  5. ↑ StGBl. No. 95/1919.
  6. ↑ This paragraph is largely an extract from the comprehensive historical compilation of the Styrian Bar Association [2] . Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  7. ↑ ZB: Ban on the Social Democratic Party with the possibility of prohibiting the Social Democrats from exercising their profession.
  8. ↑ Federal Law Gazette No. 196/1934.
  9. ↑ This paragraph is largely an extract from the comprehensive historical compilation of the Styrian Bar Association [3] . Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  10. ^ Building on the "Permanent Delegation of the Austrian Bar Association". The StVV is the direct forerunner of the ÖRAK.
  11. ↑ RGBl. I p. 353.
  12. ↑ RGBl. I p. 1406.
  13. ↑ StGBl. No. 103/1945 .
  14. ↑ Welcome to the Vienna Bar Association. Retrieved February 13, 2017 .
  15. ↑ 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@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anwaltaktuell.at
  16. ↑ There is therefore one lawyer for every 640 inhabitants . In mathematical terms, Vienna therefore has the highest density of lawyers in Austria and around twice as many as the Austrian average (around 1,450 RA / Ew.). With 4,860 Ew / RA, Burgenland has the lowest density of lawyers in Austria. However, the Principality of Liechtenstein is unsurpassed in the German-speaking countries with one lawyer for around 212 residents.
  17. ↑ The number 700 for the rest of Austria comes from the comprehensive historical compilation of the Styrian Bar Association [4] . Retrieved November 1, 2013.
  18. ↑ 2743: 3143 licensed attorneys.
  19. ↑ 3219: 2667 licensed attorneys.