!!!Verfassungsgerichtshof

Constitutional Court, one of the 3 highest courts in Austria, seat in 
Vienna, decides on the constitutionality of federal or provincial 
laws, the legality of decrees, claims regarding the disputed election 
of the federal president and elections of general representative 
bodies (National Council, provincial diets), conflicts of jurisdiction 
between courts and administrative authorities and between the  
Administrative Court and all other courts. The Constitutional Court 
also decides disputes between the  Court of Audit and the  Federal 
Government or a  Provincial Government regarding the jurisdiction of 
the Court of Audit. It also adjudges proprietary claims against the 
state, the provinces, municipalities and associations of 
municipalities which can neither be settled by a regular court nor by 
decision of an administrative authority, complaints against decisions 
of an administrative authority, if the complainant believes that the 
decision has violated one of his/her  Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, 
charges which assert the constitutional responsibility of the highest 
federal and provincial organs, etc. The Constitutional Court is 
composed of a president, a vice president, 12 further members and 6 
alternates who are appointed by the federal president and are 
independent and not transferable. They must not be members of the 
federal government or of one of the provincial governments, the 
National Council, Bundesrat or any of the general representative 
bodies, nor employees or other officials of a political party ( 
Incompatibility).

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The Constitutional Court was created in 1919 when the jurisdictions of 
the Reichsgerichtshof (Protection of the Constitution, claims of the 
Crown Lands against the Monarchy and vice versa, jurisdictional 
disputes) and the Staatsgerichtshof (charges against ministers) were 
consolidated; it was suspended in 1934 (some of its functions were 
assigned to the  Bundesgerichtshof) and re-established in 1945; 
organisational matters and proceedings are determined by the Law on 
the Constitutional Court.

!Literature
F. Ermacora, Der Verfassungsgerichtshof, 1956; V. (ed.), 
Die Gerichtsbarkeit des oeffentlichen Rechts in Oesterreich, 1983.


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