Austria: Major Reform Of Administrative Jurisdiction System Takes Effect As From 1 January 2014

Under the existing system in Austria, legal review against decisions and acts of authorities is normally granted by one or more - higher ranked - authorities. Only afterwards do the legal subjects have access to the Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof) or the Supreme Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof), both of which are restricted in their power to scrutinize the contested administrative decisions. However, in particular the European Human Rights Convention (EHRC) has forced Austria to introduce more and more independent bodies or authorities that include judicial elements for the review of administrative actions or non-actions. The most widely known of such bodies are the Independent Administrative Tribunals (Unabhängige Verwaltungssenate) in the federal states. In the end, more than one hundred of such authorities with quasi-powers of a court came into being. The Supreme Administrative Court was permanently congested with pending complaints,