The legal information system of the Republic of Austria

1) Introduction

The Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria (RIS) is a computer-assisted information system on Austrian law, which is coordinated and operated by the Austrian Federal Chancellery. Its beginnings date back to 1983 when the essential features of the system were designed. After federal legislation had been incorporated, the inclusion of the decisions of the supreme courts was started.

In June 1997, the Federal Chancellery decided to make substantial parts of the RIS, which previously had been accessible only to the public administration, available on the Internet free of charge.

Via the "overall access" (Gesamtabfrage), it is possible to search for a term in all RIS applications.

No liability is accepted for the correctness and completeness of the Legal Information System. Only text of the regulations promulgated in the federal, regional or other gazettes are relevant apart from the legally binding Austrian Federal Law Gazette is only published in the Austrian Legal Information System (since 2004). The Austrian legal information system is exclusively a documentation of Austrian law. Any further legal advice cannot be given.

Any commercial use of the data requires the approval of the Federal Chancellery or the State government or court concerned.

The applications are supplemented with a comprehensive collection of links to web sites of Austrian federal and regional authorities, the EU and international organizations as well as to other Internet providers of legal data.

A selection of the most important texts of the Austrian Federal Constitution.

A a part of the Legal Information System offers you a selection of important Austrian laws in English translation.

2) Contents of the Legal Information System

a) Federal Law Gazette There are three applications available: 1) Since 2004 the legally binding Austrian Federal Law Gazette is only published in the Austrian Legal Information System. 2) The second "Federal Law Gazette" database contains all issues of the Federal Law Gazette published from 1983 to 2003 in their original versions (HTML). 3) The third database contains all issues of the Federal Law Gazette published from 1999 to 2003 in their original versions (PDF).

There is also a link to the Austrian National Library which offers law texts from 1849 to 1940.

b) Draft bill, Government bill These databases (2002-2003 and from 19.12.2003) contain draft bills of Austrian ministries and government bills.

c) Federal law This database covers Austrian federal law (some 99 %). Amendments are incorporated as soon as they are promulgated so that the database always contains the applicable version of a document (one document: 1 section or 1 article or 1 annex). In addition to the applicable version, many norms also offer the opportunity to access previous versions, making it possible for the user to reconstruct the development of the regulation.

d) State (Regional) law As a result of the cooperation with the offices of the State (regional) governments, this database contains the law of the nine Austrian Provinces:

 Burgenland
 Carinthia
 Lower Austria
 Salzburg
 Styria
 Tyrol
 Upper Austria
 Vienna
 Vorarlberg

The documents (one document = 1 section or 1 article or 1 annex; exception: in the case of Styrian, Lower Austrian, Vorarlberg and Viennese law, one document contains the applicable version of a complete law) are processed by the State governments and transmitted to the Federal Chancellery. Unlike in the case of federal law, not all States include their previous versions as well. The degree of availability varies from state to state.

e) State Law Gazette As a result of the cooperation with the office of the State (regional) government, this database contains all issues of the State Law Gazette in their original versions of the following Austrian Provinces:

 Burgenland (since 2000)
 Carinthia (since 2000)
 Salzburg (since 2001)
 Styria (since 1999)
 Tyrol (since 1995)
 Upper Austria (since 2000)
 Vorarlberg (since 2001)

The database is permanently updated.

f) Municipal law This database contains the law of some Austrian municipalities. You can find selected municipal law of following Austrian Provinces:

 Carinthia
 Lower Austria
 Salzburg
 Styria
 Vienna

g) European Community Law This database contains the European community law. The Austrian Federal Chancellery receives the data from The Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

The CELEX database is made up of the following sectors:

 Treaties
 External relations
 Secondary legislation
 Complementary legislation
 Preparatory works
 Case law
 National measures
 Parliamentary questions
 Consolidated texts (at present time there are no documents available)
 Official Journal C-series
 EFTA documents

h) Case-law documentations The case-law was made the third key component of the Legal Information System. The databases contain both the legal maxims and the full text of the rulings.

 Constitutional Court This database contains the case-law of the Constitutional Court (nearly all rulings since 1980).

 Administrative Court This database covers the case-law of the Administrative Court and comprises nearly all its decisions since 1990. Substantial rulings are also available from previous years.

 Supreme Court This database covers the case-law of the Supreme Court and comprises the decisions of civil and criminal law.

 Independent Administrative Tribunals This database contains the case-law of the nine Independent Administrative Tribunals (selected rulings since 1991).

 Independent Federal Asylum Board This database contains the case-law of the Independent Federal Asylum Board (selected rulings since 1998).

 Environmental Senate This database contains the case-law of the Environmental Senate.

 Procurement Review Authorities This database contains the rulings of the Federal Public Procurement Review Authority, the Federal Public Procurement Arbitration Body (since 1997) and the Procurement Review Authorities of Salzburg and Vienna (since 2004).

 Data Protection Commission This database contains the rulings of the Data Protection Commission.

 Federal Communications Board This database contains selected rulings of the Federal Communications Board.

 Appeals Tribunal and Supreme Disciplinary Commission This database contains the case-law on disciplinary matters and matters pertaining to employee transfers in the Federal Government since 1999.

 Supervisory Tribunal for Employees’ Representation This database contains the case law on matters of employees’ representation.

i) The "norm list" of the Administrative Court This list of standardized, synonymous quotations of regulations is edited by the Administrative Court and is an index of admissible norm specifications in the form of abbreviations (by letter or short titles) for the case-law documentation of the Administrative Court. In addition to the abbreviated titles used by the Administrative Court, it is also planned to include the deviating abbreviations used by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court. The abbreviations of state laws and EU regulations will also be incorporated.

j) Instruction edicts You can find selected instruction edicts of Austrian ministries.

k) Instruction edicts of the Federal Ministry of Justice You can find selected instruction edicts of Austrian Federal Ministry of Justice.

l) Austrian laws in English This database contains selected Austrian laws in English translation.

3) Technical information

The RIS makes use of full text retrieval software, giving you the opportunity to search for any term. As the documents are also divided into categories (e.g. section, article, norm, legal maxim), it is also possible to focus the search on a specific category, thus reducing the number of replies so that you can reach your desired goal faster.

For further information of the system, please use the search manuals (in German) of the Legal Information System.

If you have any questions, please contact: v6@bka.gv.at Federal Chancellery of Austria, Vienna

Source : http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/info/english.html