Austria: United in Consistent Interpretation

Christoph Grabenwarter Christine Pesendorfer We would like to thank Dr Maria-Theresia Rappersberger, researcher at the Constitutional Court, for her valuable support. The eu charter of Fundamental Rights is broadly adopted by the national courts and legal scholarship in Austria. As this chapter will demonstrate, many references to the Charter can be found in Austrian jurisprudence. This is due, among other reasons, to the fact that the Austrian courts have traditionally been open to European law. In addition, a groundbreaking decision of the Austrian Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof, VfGH) has given the Charter a special position in the Austrian legal order. The research for this chapter focused in particular on the three Austrian high courts: the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof, VwGH) and the Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof, OGH) . The Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria (Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes, RIS) has been used for this purpose.