The Constitution of the Republic of Austria: A Contextual Analysis
Manfred Stelzer - Hart Publishing Limited, 2011
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The Constitution of the Republic of
Austria originated in 1920. From the beginning, it represented a compromise
between deeply-opposed political parties with widely divergent moral and
political principles. The Constitution deliberately lacked substantive content,
was formal in character, and was concerned only with the framework for the
everyday political process. Constitutional amendments were, and remain, rare
events. As a result, case law interpreting the Constitution tended to be
conservative in outlook. Controversial cases were considered a matter for
constitutional amendment rather than constitutional interpretation. In the
1980s, the Constitutional Court adopted a more expansive constitutional
jurisprudence, especially in the field of fundamental rights. While this was to
some extent an inevitable result of the influence of the European Court of Human
Rights, it meant, for instance, that the principle of proportionality became
enshrined in Austrian fundamental rights theory. The Constitutional Court even
saw fit to set limits to Parliament's power to amend the Constitution. Becoming
a Member of the European Union in 1995 presented Austria with new challenges,
leading inevitably to the creation of a Constitutional Convention and,
eventually, major amendments to the Constitution in 2008. Written in an
accessible style by an expert in the field, this book shows how the Austrian
Constitution has been shaped and interpreted by the fundamental events in
Austria's modern history. At the same time, it emphasizes the way in which the
Constitution establishes a parliamentary system, with additional presidential
features, limited, in turn, by Austria's federal structure and the parliaments
of nine states.
