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Austria The Constitutional Court
The Constitutional Court decides the legality of treaties and
the constitutionality of laws and decrees passed at the federal,
provincial, and local levels. Cases involving courts and
administrative agencies or the Administrative Court and the
Constitutional Court are heard in the Constitutional Court.
Individuals can present cases to the court if they believe a
decision of an administrative agency has violated their
constitutional rights. Monetary claims against the state,
provinces, administrative districts, or local communities that
cannot be settled by a regular court or an administrative agency
are brought to the Constitutional Court, as are claims regarding
disputed elections. The court also decides questions of
impeachment and hears cases charging the president with breaking
a constitutional law or cases charging members of federal or
provincial governments with breaking a law.
The court is composed of a president, vice president, twelve
judges, and six alternates. The federal president, on
recommendations from the cabinet, appoints the court's president,
vice president, six judges, and three alternates. The federal
president appoints six additional judges and three more
alternates based on nominations from the Nationalrat (for three
judges and two alternates) and the Bundesrat (for three judges
and one alternate). The constitution requires that three judges
and two alternates of the court, which sits in Vienna, live
outside the city. The president of the court chairs its meetings
and decides on the assignment of cases to individual judges. He
does not have voting rights, however. Cases are heard by five,
nine, or all thirteen of the judges and are decided by majority
vote.
The selection of judges for the Constitutional Court has been
controlled by the ÖVP and the SPÖ. The two parties have applied
the principle of Proporz to filling vacancies on the
court. Between 1945 and 1970, the ÖVP was the larger of the two
parties in terms of parliamentary strength, and it controlled
seven of the judgeships with voting rights; the SPÖ controlled
six of the judgeships. Beginning in 1970, the ratio was reversed
when the SPÖ gained more seats in the parliament than the ÖVP.
Data as of December 1993
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