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Origins of legal requirements

Austrian domestic Law

Origin
Enacted by federal and state legislators

Government proposes drafts, usually holds majority

National Council → Federal Council

Constitution

Legal body highest ranked in the law hierachy

Consists of various legal documents and treaties
Revised by the Constitutional Court

Types of Law
Formal Law adm. Regulations Case Law

Bills passed by
Applies exclusively
administries
Passed by the to the parties stated
determining the
legislative body in this individual
details of a certain
case
law

goes through ministries etc. are Enacted by courts,

pairlamentary authorized by public offices and
procedures legislator contracts

Applies to a specific
Applies to everyone Applies to everyone
situation

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 Austrian legal sources can be consulted in the Rechtsinformationssystem RIS

European Union law

The EU differs between primary and secondary EU law, the former one being
treaties setting out the responsibilities between the EU, their institutions and
their Members.
These treaties include:

2009 Lisbon Treaty

TEU Treaty on European Union

TFEU Treaty on the Functioning of the EU

CFREU Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU

EU Secondary Lawmakers
Refers to law enacted by the European legislator. This consists of:

The European Commission

The European Parliament

The Council of the EU

Important! Council of the EU NOT European Council

The Commission holds the executive power and, since recently together with
the Parliament, proposes drafts.

The Parliament and the Council hold the legislative Power

The European Economic Area EEA

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 The European Economic Area (EEA) is an economic cooperation agreement
between the EU and three of the four members of the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA): Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. It allows for the free
movement of goods, services, capital, and persons between the EU and the
EFTA countries.

Switzerland is not part of the EEA, but ensures participation in the single
market by bilateral agreements with the EU, which adopt EU law into swiss
legislation.

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 EU Law types

EU Regulations
Take direct affect

Will be applied by courts directly

EU Directives
Implemented by national legislators

Will only be applied by courts via national law

Implementation of Directives
Directives have to be implemented granting the following principles:

conformity with EU Law

conformity with interpretations issued by the Court of Justice of the EU

Preliminary Ruling in cases dependent of interpretation of EU Law

This process obliges the court of a last instance to submit the issue to
the CJEU, to recieve binding guidance on the interpretation.

Failure to implement a Directive by a Member State leads to (limited) direct

effect of that Directive

Primacy of EU law
Eu law is higher ranked (primacy) than national law, including
constitutional law.

In case of conflict, the national law must be disapplied in favor of EU law.

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 Cross-border situations
A cross border situation occurs when one party is located in a foreign
state or has a foreign nationality

Dealings:
1. The law specifically regulates the situation

asylum law

free trade agreements

2. The situation is indirectly regulated by recognising different

nationalities or solely directing to a particular nationality (status)

trade regulation law

social security law

3. A specific section of the law clarifies the territorial reach and when
the rules apply to cross border situations

Austrian criminal code

general data protection regulation

4. A law may stay silent on cross-border situation, so it has to read

together with a body called “conflict of laws” that tells which
national law governs the issue

property law

contract law

family law

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 International law
Regulates legal relations between different states and similar entities

Sources:

Customary law

Universally recognized principles

Treaties

Process of putting a Treaty into force

1. Signing

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 2. Finalization

3. Ratifying

Types of Treaty - provisions

Self executing: Will automatically be enforceable

non-self executing: Has to be implemented by national legislators,

only whose laws will be enforceable

what are treaties for?

They set a framework for interaction of members of participating
states
They can form international organizations and other derivative
entities

Council of Europe

Has 47 member states

Serves as supervisor on certain international treaties

Most notably European convention of human rights

Via the European court of human rights

World trade organization

Has 164 member states

Settles trade-related disputes between member states Trough an

exclusively accepted system

Aims to find mutual agreements for solely trade related issues

United Nations

Has 193 member states

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 Maintains peace and security and develops cooperation between
states

Includes int. court of justice in den Haag and commission of int.

trade law in Vienna

Has many derivative organizations like WHO and WIPO

Ratification
Ratification is the States consent to be bound by the treaty

Accession is the same process for already existing treaties

Multilateral treaties: an international organization collects

ratifications. Usually a treaty will only enter into force after a
certain amount of ratifications.

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